Renegade Pilgrim

Travel Resolutions for 2012

2012-01-06T23:27:00.000-08:00

BootsnAll has created the Indie Travel Challenge 2012 this year. The first week is all about travel resolutions. I am not one to make resolutions for anything at the beginning of the year. However, I do make travel plans and 2012 is shaping up to be a good year. Here are my travel goals for 2012:

Maui in March

It has a certain ring to it, don't you think? Back in July, I was invited to my first (and only) press briefing, courtesy of the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau. I wasn't even sure I wanted to attend since Hawaii has never been on my destination list. I decided it might be fun and a good way to network with other travel bloggers so I went. I learned a lot about Maui, Lanai and Molokai and the various activities one can do while visiting. I actually wanted to go to Maui to check things out! A few weeks after the press briefing, I received an email notifying me that I had won a trip to Maui, courtesy of the MVCB. I had completely forgotten all of the participants names had been tossed into a hat, and apparently my name had been drawn as the winner! I am looking forward to flying Hawaiian Airlines, snorkeling with Trilogy, and staying at Makena Surf, Napili Kai and Aston Maui Ka'anapali Villas, in addition to two extra nights at an AirBnB location in Kihei. I'm taking a friend with me who shares a similar travel philosophy and is looking forward to the experience as much as I am. Our plans include plenty of beach time, as well as hiking, whale watching, sea kayaking and experiencing the cuisine of Maui.

West Coast Trail Backpack

Ever since I returned from walking the Camino de Santiago in 2010, I have been looking for other long walks to do. A friend of mine told me about the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada about six months ago. I have been obsessing about it ever since. The trail is 70km from Port Renfrew to Bamfield. It takes most people 5-7 days to do the trail, depending on how fast you are walking. It's a technical hike in some areas with ladders and cable cars for river crossings. Over 100 people are rescued a year. It is not a trail for the weak of heart. I just set a date for mid-May and am recruiting people to go with me, but am perfectly okay with going solo.

Camino Portuguese

In April/May of 2010, I walked from Saint Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain along the 800km Camino Frances route. This year, I am planning to walk from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, then continue to the end of the earth, aka Finisterre and then onto Muxia. Depending on how much vacation time I can get approved at work, I am hoping to meet up with friends in Morocco before heading home.

Travel Oregon

Recently, a team of photographers put together an amazing time-lapse video focussing on the natural beauty of the state of Oregon. It is called "Finding Oregon" and it has inspired me to explore more of the state I have called home for most of my life. I am planning trips to the Alvord Desert, the southern Oregon coast, and places in Eastern Oregon like the Wallowas, Baker City and Pendleton over the next year. Look for posts about these trips as I share the beauty of my home.

Thanks BootsnAll for the inspiration. I am excited to participate in this project!

Food Review: Cream Bakery, Madrid, Spain

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

The unassuming entrance to Cream Bakery.

Imagine being far, far away from home. Imagine craving something familiar. Imagine being able to find that in the middle of Madrid. Cream Bakery is such a place where one can find the most delicious cupcakes and confections and wash them down with a nice Italian espresso.

I heard about Cream Bakery from a British friend of mine. I was looking for unique places in Madrid not in the guidebooks and Cream Bakery fit the bill. I have not been able to find any other reference to this lovely spot (in English anyways) and it gives me great pleasure to share the experience with others so they may try the goodness this bakery produces.

Paula Machin is the owner extraordinaire of Cream Bakery. Her main focus is cupcakes but when we stopped in she was working on a last minute order for Estee Lauder and a cake in the form of the Chevrolet bow tie. As you can see from the photo below, she also specializes in wedding cakes. She can do it all!

The display case and open window to watch Paula at work.

Paula offers a rotating selection of cupcakes. She has the standard chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, along with Oreo, carrot cake, and red velvet. I chose the Oreo cupcake and a shot of espresso for my afternoon snack. My sister and our other travel companion each had a red velvet cupcake. I can only speak for my experience with the Oreo cupcake. It was delicious. It was the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. The cake was moist and not too sweet. The frosting was reminiscent of the white filling in an Oreo cookie, but much softer and tasty. For a cupcake and an espresso, it ran just under 5 Euros, which I thought was decent for the quality of the product. If you are ever in Madrid, please look up Creme Bakery, you will not be disappointed.

Oreo cupcakes in the display case.

Red Velvet cupcake with cream frosting.

Italian espresso

Details:
Cream Bakery
Paseo de la Castellana, 68
Madrid, Spain 28046
91 250 0303 (telephone)
Directions
Metro Stop: Gregorio Marañon
Bus Lines: 12, 45, 147, 14, 40, 150, 27, 7
http://www.creambakery.net

Hostel Review: Las Musas Residence, Madrid, Spain

2011-11-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

At first glance, Las Musas Residence looks like an IKEA store exploded inside it. After staying there for four nights, this is a valid assessment. Much of the decor is from IKEA, which gives the hostel a clean and organized feel. I like clean and organized!

I booked a four-bed ensuite room for myself and three friends. We had a few requirements. No bunk beds in our room. Check. Close to major sites. Check. Clean and safe. Check. Free wifi and internet. Double check! It also helped that the hostel was reasonably priced for Madrid.

There are so many good things to say about this hostel. The staff is super friendly. They helped a friend of ours find a bed at another hostel close by. They answered questions I am sure they get asked a hundred times a day with a smile on their face.

The free breakfast in the morning was nice. Plenty of coffee, cola cao, toast, and cereal. The breakfast runs from 8a-10a, so if you get there early, there is peace and quiet...a little bit later and that's when the party crowd starts waking up. There is a fully stocked kitchen with grocery stores nearby, so if you are on a budget and want to cook, you can.

A pub crawl is offered every night for the party crowd. During the day, they offer a free walking tour of Madrid I found to be wonderfully informative. Harriett, our tour guide, was entertaining, educational and put up with some funny situations that occurred throughout the three hour tour. Once a week, they also offer an opportunity to see private flamenco dancing. I will be writing about the walking tour and the flamenco later, but know that these are activities offered through the hostel I found to be useful and fun.

Here's a view of our room the day we left.

Our bathroom.

The only real problem I could foresee is getting to the hostel from the bus station at Avenida Americas is a bit of a chore. We cheated and took a taxi from the bus station, which cost about 12 Euros split four ways. I'm not really sure how you would get there by public transportation. The hostel is very easy to get to/from from the airport because there is a metro stop two blocks aways. Aside from that, we really had no problems and that was just an inconvenience.

The next time I am in Madrid, I plan to stay at Las Musas Residence. If you are going there, I suggest you check it out too!

Small Town Living in Spain: Santo Domingo de la Calzada

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

The view from the tower in town.

I recently spent two weeks with my sister living in Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the La Rioja region in northern Spain. I was able to immerse myself in the culture of the town, work on my poor Spanish and pretend I was a local. I recommend everyone trying this at some point in their travels.

My sister and I volunteered as hospitaleras in a pilgrim albergue (hostel) on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Our job was to run a pilgrim hostel for two weeks straight, with no breaks. We had about three hours every morning to wander around town, go grocery shopping, and explore the sights. I plan to write more about our experiences volunteering in a later post, until then, I want to share some of the neat things we discovered in this small Spanish town.

When in Santo Domingo....

Santo Domingo de la Calzada has a population of 6260 and sits about 73 miles east of Burgos, which is a major city in northern Spain. The city is named after Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Saint Dominic of the Highway) who established a pilgrim hospital, a pilgrim hostel and a bridge here. It is also probably most well-known for the Miracle of the Cock and Hen.

Our time in Sto. Domingo was wonderful and difficult at the same time. I'd like to go into a little more detail about what was great and what we struggled with to provide an idea of what it's like to live in a small town in Spain.

A local walking path in town.

Pros
Getting to know the locals: Because of our situation working at the albergue, we were able to meet and chat with many of the locals. We also had our "regular" stop every morning to get a cafe con leche and a pastry. Sometimes we had to rotate our regular morning stop due to closures for rest days. We frequented the same grocery stores, butcher shops, vegetable shops and gift shops over the two weeks we were there. It was nice to be recognized.

There's always a festival or holiday: I think this is true of most European cities, but especially true in small towns throughout Spain. We had missed an important religious festival two days prior to our arrival. Lucky for us, at the end of our stay, we were able to experience the Chestnut Festival in Sto. Domingo. There were fresh roasted chestnuts for sale in addition to local meats, cheeses, breads, honey, nuts and other local delicacies from the La Rioja region. It was like an upscale farmers market. Everyone in the community came out for the festival, enjoying the food and festivities.

Slow travel is good: The more I travel, the more I have slowed down. I actually prefer to stay in one spot for a while to get to know the area. Even though we didn't have a car to get around, we were still able to see most of the town just by walking around. It was nice to know we weren't leaving after just a few days. I liked it.

Best way to learn the language is full immersion: While I had hoped my spanish would have come along a little bit better, after two weeks, I was able to understand more and my vocabulary was improving too. The people we encountered were very kind and spoke slower when we asked so we could understand.

Learn the local history: We were fortunate that we were in a town with a very rich history. They had a tourism office next door to the albergue and we had some information in english to look at. The cofradia, who operated our albergue, play an important role in Sto. Domingo. One of the members, Julian, gave me a private tour of their building. This tour included a special room for important ceremonies, a museum of the highway, as well as a room dedicated to the cofradia's memorabilia. We learned quite a bit about Sto. Domingo and it's importance on the Camino de Santiago during our stay.

Cons
Language barrier: Even though my spanish improved over the two weeks, there was still a large language barrier when it came to communicating with the cofradia members and the pilgrims coming into the albergue. The majority of our pilgrims were spanish-speaking, followed by french, german and italian. English was spoken by many pilgrims, which helped, but I never expected anyone to speak english. It helped that I had "cheat" sheets of basic words/phrases in four of the languages spoken on the Camino. I just wished I had studied up on my spanish more beforehand.

Difficult to get to: We didn't realize there was a direct bus from Madrid to Sto. Domingo, so we took a bus from Madrid to Burgos, spent the night, then took another bus from Burgos to Sto. Domingo. Small towns require more planning and knowledge to get to. Sometimes there is only one or two busses each day going through town. I think the inconvenience is worth it, though.

Transportation issues once you are there: Most small towns do not have public transportation. There is no need for it. You can usually walk to wherever you need to go. So, if you want to drive around the area, you need to get really familiar with whatever local busses run through town and where they go. While we were in Sto. Domingo we found out about two monasteries on the UNESCO World Heritage list we would have liked to go see. Unfortunately, we would have had to book a taxi to take us there and back. It was cost-prohibitive to do so.

Our time in Santo Domingo de la Calzada was very special. I felt like we had become a part of the community in the short two weeks time we were there. I can't wait to return in a couple of years to serve again as a hospitalera. I am also looking forward to trying out small town living in other countries and regions around the world. Give it a try!

Music to Walk To: My Camino de Santiago Playlist

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

I love music. Music is a huge part of my life. When I am home from traveling, I try to go to as many concerts as my wallet will allow. Last year, in an effort to simplify my walk across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, I didn't bring my iPod. I missed it so much! I realized how important it was to have a little tune in my ear to put a kick in my step. Before I returned to Spain recently to volunteer on the Camino de Santiago, I put together a "Camino Walking" mix to play for the pilgrims as they were leaving the albergue in the morning. Here are the top ten songs, in no particular order, I put on the mix with an explanation of why it was included.

1. The Belle Brigade "Where Not To Look For Freedom": I love this band! This song is one I can envision listening to as I head out on a road trip. Either way, it has a catchy tune and is one of those motivational songs to get the blood pumping and keep my spirits up as I walk.

2. The Material "What Happens Next": This song was featured as a TV show theme song in Australia. I really like The Material. Their music is uplifting and positive, something lacking in today's music. They are also a standup group of musicians.

3. Indigo Girls "Closer To Fine": An oldie but a goodie...The Indigo Girls have been a longtime favorite band of mine. I've seen them more times than I can count and never tire of hearing this song. It always puts a smile on my face and a swing in my step.

4. Brandi Carlile "Dreams": This woman can sing. My friends know I have a slight obsession with her music and there are many songs of hers I could have chosen. I just love this song. It has a catchy tune and fun lyrics to listen to.

5. Joshua Radin "Brand New Day": Aside from the fact this video is hilarious, I love the lyrics in this song. I know when I walked the Camino last year, I had to remind myself that each day was a new day and it would be a good one. This song serves as a reminder of that.

6. Joni Mitchell "Both Sides Now": When you walk 800km across Spain, you tend to get a little bit of perspective on life. Truly, you can see from both sides. I have always loved Joni Mitchell and this song kind of spoke to me when I was thinking about my time walking.

7. U2 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For": Many who walk the Camino are searching for something. This song is for those people. It is one of my all time favorite U2 tunes and everyone, no matter where they are from in the world has heard of it.

8. Chris Pureka "Wagon Wheel": My friend Jenn Levo shot this video of Chris Pureka covering this Old Crow Medicine Show song at my favorite venue in Portland, Mississippi Studios. I love Chris's version of this song. This is another one of those tunes that brings a smile to my face every time I hear it.

9. Dixie Chicks "Wide Open Spaces": There is a part of the Camino de Santiago called "the Meseta". It's about 150km of nothingness (which I actually enjoyed!). It's the epitome of wide open spaces. I loved it. This song reminds me of the Meseta and it reminds me of the potential we all have in life.

10. The Head and The Heart "Lost In My Mind": I discovered this Seattle band about a year ago, and this song captures how I felt some days while walking on the Camino. I would be walking by myself and truly was lost in my mind. If you ever get a chance to see this band perform, go see them!

How to See Northern Spain on 25 Euros a Day

2011-10-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't a Rick Steve's or Frommer's guide from the 1980s. You really can see northern Spain on 25 Euros a day (30 Euros a day if you splurge every once in a while) in the year 2011. It's so easy to do you will wonder why more budget-conscious travelers don't. I'll tell you why.

Because you have to walk it.

It is called the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, or the Way of St. James. This is an ancient pilgrimage path, used by pre-Christians long before the remains of St. James were discovered in rural Galicia by a hermit and authenticated by the local bishop. Over the past thousand years or so, millions have walked the Camino across northern Spain. Many have walked for religious or spiritual reasons, and most recently, many walk to clear their head, figure out the answers to life's bigger questions or see it as an adventure.

So, how do I walk to Santiago de Compostela?

There are books you can buy that will tell you everything you need to know to walk the Camino. There are websites with online forums that have people from all over the world who have walked the Camino willing to share their wisdom. I recommend you check out those links if you are seriously considering the walk. You can even contact me, and I will do my best to give you solid advice. In the meantime, here's a brief overview of things to consider.

Routes
The most walked route is the Camino Frances, which begins in several different places in France, but many pilgrims start in the small French village of St. Jean Pied de Port. It is a day's walk from St. Jean Pied de Port over to the Pyrenees into Spain to the sleepy Spanish outpost of Roncesvalles. From there you will continue walking through Basque country, into Navarra, then the wine country of La Rioja, followed by Castilla y León, and finally Galicia. If you choose to walk from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela, you will walk 800 km (just under 500 miles).

St. Jean Pied de Port, France

Photo: Heather Knight

Where To Stay

Along the Camino Frances (and many of the other routes), there is a network of pilgrim hostels known as albergues. They range in price from donativo (not free, you make a donation) to 3-6€ for municipal/parochial albergues and up to 12€ for private albergues. Some albergues provide a simple breakfast of tostada con marmelada y cafe con leche, others also provide dinner, both for an addtional cost. These are basic accomodations with bunk beds, showers, and sometimes a kitchen to cook in. Be warned, all of the Xunta albergues in Galicia have the most amazing kitchens, with nothing to cook with! They also don't have shower curtains in the showers. Why? It's anyone's guess. The Spanish do things sometimes that make me scratch my head and shrug my shoulders. You just have to be flexible.

Albergue in Roncesvalles, Spain

Photo: Erik N. from flickr

What To Pack

I am only go to say this once. PACK LIGHT! Plan to wear a small backpack, no larger than 50L. I am a big fan of Osprey packs like the Exos, the Talon and the Hornet series. Your pack (minus food/water) should weigh no more than 10% of your total body weight. This is not like backpacking. Here is a basic packing list, you can adjust as needed.

Sleeping bag (under 1kg/2 lbs)

Hiking pants (2 pair)

Short sleeve shirts (2)

Long sleeve shirt (1)

Underwear (2 pairs)
Thermal bottoms (if hiking in Spring or Fall, not necessary in Summer)
Socks (4 pairs, wool or synthetic, no cotton...include 2 pairs of liners too!)
Small toiletry kit and travel towel
Journal, pen and an e-reader with the guidebook and a Spanish phrasebook loaded onto it
Headlamp (or a small torch, or a squeeze light)
Laundry line

Rain jacket and pants (or a poncho, your choice)
Puffy jacket or vest
Boots, trail runners or hiking shoes (your choice, just make sure they are broken in and maybe 1/2 size too big)
Sandals, flip flops or a lightweight pair of shoes (for walking around town after you are done for the day)
Hat (one that covers your neck)

Sunglasses

Sunscreen

Earplugs (for the champion snorers you will encounter)

Foot Care Kit (moleskin, alcohol wipes, Compeed, tape, etc..I will be posting more on this later)
Water bladder for backpack, 1-2L is sufficient
Camera w/charger
Light My Fire Spork (trust me...this was the best thing I brought!)
A spirit for adventure, an open mind and a grateful heart. It would also be helpful if you speak a little bit of spanish.

Backpacks aka Mochilas

Photo: Freecat from flickr

Things to Leave at Home or Ship Ahead
Electronics (they weigh too much, they might get stolen and you won't need them, trust me!)

Extra clothes (if you are a world traveler with a big pack, ship everything ahead to Santiago, for 25€ this place will hold your bag in a secure location for 60 days)

Anything you "think" you might need. If you need it, you can buy it along the way.

What's a Typical Day Like on the Camino?

Every person does their Camino different. Here is what my day usually looked like:

6:00a Get up, if someone had not already awoken the entire dorm at 5:30a to get a head start

7:00a Eat breakfast (usually yogurt and fresh fruit bought the day before)

8:00a Start walking

10:00a Stop for breakfast #2 in a bar along the way, usually tortilla de españa with a cafe con leche, 2-3€

12:00p Stop for lunch in bar along the way for a bocadillo and coca cola, 5€

2-4:00p Stop walking for the day, find an albergue for 3€ to 10€ (in Galicia, they can be as high as 12€ for private ones)

4-6:00p Do my chores (shower, hand wash/line dry clothes, take a nap)

6:00-10:00p Find dinner or a grocery store, then back to the hostel to hang out, write in journal and in bed by 10:00p

What are the cost breakdowns?

I posted a few numbers above. Basically, allow 8€ for breakfast and lunch, an average of 5€ for albergues and 12€ for a pilgrim dinner (or groceries to cook yourself). The totals will average themselves out over the course of the 33-35 days you walk and will come pretty close to 25€/day. Some days you will spend more, some days you will spend less. The pilgrim dinners include water or wine (sometimes a whole bottle to yourself!), two courses and a dessert. Sometimes I found this to be too much food. I would often go to a bar that did not cater to pilgrims and order a plato combinado (hello breakfast for dinner!) for 6€. 25€/day is more than enough to have a great Camino experience!

Still looking for some motivation?
Here are two video trailers you should watch. The first one is from The Camino Documentary, a film currently in post-production in my home town of Portland, OR. Full disclosure: I am a volunteer on the film, but trust me, it's going to be amazing when it is finished! Watch it and tell me what you think.

The second movie trailer is for, The Way, a new movie currently out in select theaters throughout the United States. I saw the movie about two weeks ago and it had me laughing, crying and yearning for another walk on the Camino.

I will be posting more thoughts on packing and other bits of information in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Thailand: The Ugly

2011-10-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

There are so many good things to say about Thailand, as I described earlier. However, there is this really, really dark side to the country and quite frankly, these are the deal breakers for me returning.

Major Scam Alert
As I stated earlier, scams are very prevalent in Thailand. I was able to experience first-hand someone trying to pull one over on me. While in Bangkok, I was trying to decide if I wanted to head to southern Thailand. I am not a huge party animal, and not really interested in beaches but I needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. I had been looking through my Lonely Planet book and settled on a small town south of Bangkok, called Ban Krut. There was a Hosteling International hostel there, which usually means there is a certain standard they have to adhere to. I was wrong on this. Very, very wrong.

Let me be very clear. DO NOT STAY HERE! The HI-Ban Krut may have stellar reviews on many of the hosteling sites but my experience was horrible.

I made my reservation the night before I left Bangkok. The price online was 300 baht/night for a dorm bed, which I thought was fair for a beachside hostel. I reserved five nights. I made the mistake of not printing a copy of the reservation, instead just making note of the reservation number in my travel notebook.

Getting there was a bit of a challenge but I arrived unscathed after a scary ride on a scooter. I went to check into the hostel and was met with a blank stare by the woman at the desk when I said I had a reservation. She asked what the price for the room was. I told her 300 baht and mentioned I had booked on the HI website.   Never once did she even acknowledge that she had my reservation, but she did ask to see the booking reference number, which I had written the final balance due right next to it. She asked if this was the rate "per night" (the final balance was 1425 baht) and I said "No! This is the total balance due after a deposit I made on the HI site when I made my reservation."

She logged onto the slower than dial-up satellite internet and I showed her the HI site where it plainly stated the dorm room beds were 300 baht per night. She told me, "Internet wrong price, dorm bed 400 baht a night". She continued to tell me about a "bungalow" (I use that term lightly) for 300 baht a night (which is not what I reserved) so I said, "Fine, I'll take it if that is what my reservation is for." She offered to show it to me first.

We walked over to a bug-infested "bungalow" that was barely large enough for me and my backpack, with a 2 inch thick mattress and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks, with no bathroom anywhere in sight. I again told her I would take it if this is what the reservation was for. She was not too pleased with my enthusiasm and went back to the front desk. She made a few phone calls and finally said she could give me the dorm room for 300 baht per night. I spent an hour negotiating with her and never once did she look to see if I had a reservation! I shouldn't have had to negotiate a reservation from a reputable site like Hosteling International.

For the record, I did send a letter of complaint to Hosteling International. Their response was to refer me to the Thai YHA and of course, they never addressed my concerns. I am not a complainer. It takes a really egregious offense for me to even write a letter of complaint, much less write a long blog post about it.

My recommendation to avoid a situation like this anywhere is to always print a copy of the website displaying the prices and to make sure you print out a copy of the reservation. This is not always possible on the road, but if you can, it may save you some headache in the future.

Sex Trade
While I can deal with the scams and people trying to rip me off, one of the things I cannot tolerate is the sex trade in SE Asia. It disgusts me. It varies from prostitution to ping pong shows (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about) to using children for pornography and sex. Sometimes I feel like SE Asia is the equivelant of Tijuana in Mexico. It's a playground for Americans, Canadians, and other Westerners. There are actual tours designed for sex tourism. If you see an older Western man traveling solo, chances are he's in Thailand to satiate his sexual urges with children, ladyboys, or prostitutes. Bangkok is one of the big players and so is Pattaya, down on the coast. The sex trade runs rampant and there's no escaping it.

Three friends from my hostel were on Khao San Road one night and a prostitute was propositioning one of the fellows and he kept telling her to leave them alone. Finally, he put his arm around one of the girls (an Asian-Canadian) and said he was with her. That was the wrong thing to do! The prostitute started screaming, yelling and hit the poor guy in the head with one of her 6-inch stillettos! He had to go to the hospital for sutures and it left an impression, to say the least.

My last night in Thailand, I went walking with another friend and we inadvertently found Patpong Road, one of the well known places to catch a ping pong show. There also happened to be a night market going on (when is there not a night market going on somewhere in Bangkok?) so we wandered around so I could do some last minute shopping. Then we started to walk around Patpong and noticed places like the "Pussy Connection" and "Super Pussy". I snapped a few pictures and by doing so, got some threatening glares from the club owners and bouncers.

Thai Girlfriends
Yep, I am going to go there. In every city I traveled to, I noticed Western men with Thai women. Some were married, many were girlfriends. And some were just plain prostitutes (I'm getting ahead of myself here with that story). I understand that some men can't find a girlfriend in their home country and they come to Thailand and other countries in SE Asia to find their "match". But really, who are they kidding? I sat in bars and restaurants and observed interactions with the Western men and their Thai girlfriends.   The look of genuine boredom on the faces of most Thai women was priceless. Do these men really think these women find them attractive and want to be with them? Or is it just the companionship they seek? I don't get it.

One of the last days I was in Bangkok, I wanted to watch a movie. I headed over to MBK to see what they had showing. I didn't find one I liked so I went over to Siam Paragon to see if there selection was any better. I found a movie and got in line behind a rather morbidly obese American.  He was standing next to a petite, skinny Thai woman wearing a tight tank top, a short skirt that barely covered her lady bits and six inch stilletto heels. Apparently, this man was oblivious to the fact I was standing behind him. It's not like I "blend" in SE Asia. I'm a short, white Western-looking woman wearing travel clothes.

The line was moving slow which allowed me plenty of time to hear him talk to this woman about his wife and kid at home. He even showed her pictures! He was wearing business casual clothing-a tie, dress shirt and khaki dress pants with standard black dress shoes. I could tell by his body language he knew he was doing something wrong. He was laughing nervously, even sweating a little. He kept looking around, trying to be careful not to touch the woman standing very close to him. It took all of my energy to not call him out and say, "Um hello??!! Yes, I speak english and yes, I think you are an f-ing bastard for cheating on your wife." Actually I would have used much choicer words, but you get the idea. But I was in shock. So, I continued to listen and my disgust continued to grow until eventually the line moved, they bought their tickets and went into the theater. I decided I had had enough and didn't want to pay $30 to see the movie, so I went window shopping instead.

These three things are deal breakers for me. These are the reasons I might not go back to Thailand. At the very least, I won't be going back to Bangkok. Chiang Mai is still a very special place to me because of the experiences I had there. But, all of the above things exist there, too. They just left a bad taste in my mouth. I just wish Westerners didn't treat developing countries like their personal playgrounds. It makes the rest of us look bad.

Thailand: The Bad

2011-10-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

In order to get caught up with where I actually am at the moment (Spain), I am going to finish my series of posts on Thailand. Of course, I still have more things to say about Thailand, but this is my take on the "bad".

Scams
Anyone who has researched a trip to Thailand or SE Asia has probably come across information about the scams you might encounter. One of my favorite sites is Bangkok Scams. While I did not fall for any scams, there were several times where I saw myself being led that way.

When I arrived in Bangkok, I knew basic directions to get to my hostel. Before I left the BTS Station, I asked a policeman (or maybe a military man) which direction was the street I was looking for. He pointed in the correct direction and I started walking that way. Before I got too far, a well dressed man asked me where I was going and when I told him, tried to direct me in the opposite direction. I already knew where this was headed and before I could politely tell him to go away, a friendly Western jogger came along to check and make sure I was okay. That was all the well dressed man needed to get the hint. I continued walking and found my hostel.

In Chiang Mai, I was fortunate to stay in a great hostel whose owners were able to negotiate amazing rates for pretty much any activity I wanted to participate in. While walking around the temples one day, a man struck up a conversation with me and the next thing you know, I am in a tour office and he's trying to sell me a cooking class. I politely told the woman at the desk that I wasn't interested and walked out. No harm, no foul.

After a while, it starts to wear on you though. The scamming had started in Israel, continued through Jordan, then India and came to a crescendo in Thailand. I just wanted an honest answer from people and knew I was never getting one. Tuk tuk drivers will charge you double or triple what they charge locals. Half the time they won't use the meter. Same goes with taxis. It kind of ruined the experience of Thailand for me.

Buddhist Temples
I have a rule that I only have broken once on my travels. I don't pay to get into places of worship. This is especially true of Catholic churches, since I am Catholic. I broke this rule to see Sagrada Familia in Spain, but I don't really count it as a church since it was (and continues to be!) still under construction when I saw it. It also had not been consecrated yet, so technically, not a Catholic church.

Almost all of the major Buddhist temples in Bangkok charge entrance fees. Tourists pay sometimes four times what a local pays...sometimes even more. To me, Buddhist temples are similar to Catholic churches...once you've seen one, you've seen them all. I know that sounds horrible, but how many paintings of the crucified Christ can one really appreciate? I feel the same way about Buddhas. In Chiang Mai, there are more Buddhist temples than you can shake a stick at and none of them charged an entrance fee. I was able to freely walk around to a few (before being accosted by a tout...see above on scams) and then decided I had seen enough.

These two things are not deal breakers for me going back to Thailand. They are more like major annoyances and now that I have experienced them, I know how to prepare myself for a return trip, if I choose to overlook the "Ugly" parts of Thailand. That post will be coming up in another day or so.

Thailand: The Good

2011-08-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been holding off on talking about Thailand. It was an interesting experience and I've really struggled with how I wanted to write about Thailand. So, I've decided to do a three-part series on Thailand: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I am going to start out with the positives, because there are plenty and then progressively move toward the not-so-positives because I think they are important too.

I spent a few days shy of 5 weeks in Thailand and experienced the following locations: Bangkok, Ban Krut (Ban Krood), and Chiang Mai. Here are "The Good" things about those places.

Hostels
HI-Udee Bangkok This hostel was the first place I stayed at in Bangkok. I stayed in the female dorm for 350 baht/night (around $12) which is probably double what you would pay on Khao San Road, but it was completely worth it! It is within walking distance of the BTS Skytrain, as well as the public bus system. It is close to the Big C, a large grocery store/mall/food court. Udee Bangkok is a short tuk tuk ride away to Chatuchak Market. They have free wi-fi, friendly staff, small lockers to lock up valuables, air conditioning (only at night) and it's super clean.

Green Tulip (Chiang Mai) This hostel is hands down my favorite hostel in all of Thailand. It is located in the "old city" of Chiang Mai, within walking distance of probably ten Buddhist temples and priced at 380 baht/night (around $13) for a single bed, no a/c (with floor fan) and shared bathroom. Stella and Nine, the two owners, are probably the two most genuinely nice Thai people I met the entire time I was in Thailand. Nine took such good care of me that I spent more time in Chiang Mai than originally planned. She helped book me a ziplining trip, as well as a cooking class. She will book you any trip you want, and you will pay a fair price. The hostel is close to the night and weekend markets, has free wi-fi plus regular computers with internet, serves a decent American breakfast and has a positive vibe. It's not a party hostel, it's the perfect place to chill out.

Lub'd Silom (Bangkok) I stayed here my last night in Thailand with a friend from the States who happened to be going through Bangkok on their way to Chiang Mai. It was the perfect choice. We stayed in a spacious dorm room for 350 baht/night (around $12), it had a/c, individual lights and electrical sockets, large lockers and wi-fi in the rooms (and common area). It was close to the BTS and there was a great night market just down the street.

Shopping
I didn't spend a lot of time actually buying things, but it sure was fun to go shopping! There are knock-offs galore throughout Thailand, with varying degrees of quality. Electronics are not any cheaper than at home, so I would steer clear of them. Clothing and other stuff, all fair game. In Bangkok, I really liked Chatuchak Market because it didn't seem to be as high pressure as other places like MBK. I found better deals at Chatuchak Market, too.

For grocery store food, the Big C in Bangkok is all kinds of amazing. I spent most of my time there either grocery shopping, eating in their food court, or just people-watching. There was also a vendor out in front who served the most delicious coconut ice cream that I would order at least once a day.

In Chiang Mai, I was a big fan of the Night & Weekend Market. Both offered the same kinds of things, though I felt the Weekend Market had more "homemade" kinds of items, whereas the Night Market had more knock-offs and souvenirs.

Food
This is going to get a post of it's own soon, but until then, I cannot rave enough about the street food in Thailand. I ate everything I thought looked interesting. Roti, pad thai, meat on a stick, fresh fruit, green papaya salad, smoothies, and khao man gai.

I also highly recommend taking a cooking class in Chiang Mai. There are cooking schools all over the city. I went to Siam Rice Thai Cookery School. It was so much fun! When I came home from traveling, I had a bunch of my friends over to cook for them and they said it was the best Thai food they had ever tasted. You will learn how to make everything, including the curry sauce from scratch and it will amaze your friends and family when you get home.

Sights & Activities
I am not a huge fan of Buddhist temples.....the reason will come in one of my next posts. I found other interesting things to see and do while I was in Thailand.

I really enjoyed finding Ban Baat aka Monk Bowl Village. This is the soi where there are Thais who make the Buddhist monk begging bowls in the traditional way. We didn't get too far down the soi before we met this woman who showed me her wares.

She demonstrated how the bowls are made and even let my friend, Natalie try her hand at it. It's a really neat experience and I was able to purchase one for myself and one for a gift.

Another place I went to was the Medical Museum at Siriraj Hospital. I work in healthcare in my "real" life, so I thought it might be fun to go check it out. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures inside, so this is the only one I got.

This place was a bit of a challenge to get to. The easiest way is to take one of the river taxis, then walk through the amazing food market and then over to the hospital. Siriraj Hospital is HUGE! There were signs for the museum all over, so we just followed them through the maze of buildings and bought our ticket for 40 baht (just over $1). This museum was creepy, yet fascinating. It features several smaller exhibits within its walls. My favorite was the forensic museum, which had Thailand's first serial killer's body on display. My second favorite was the parasite museum featuring the various types of parasites in Thailand, how they are contracted and what the treatment options are. I got a little queasy after that one! I enjoyed the exhibit on the 2004 tsunami, which explained the relief efforts as well as body recovery. Some of the exhibits had English translations and they have started to rent out audio tour devices to assist you in getting the most out of the visit. It's a little morbid, but if you don't mind, it's one of those things that should not be missed!

Volunteering
When I was in India volunteering, I met a Thai Catholic nun, Sr. Monica, who invited me to visit her in Bangkok. I spent my final 5 days in Thailand with her, staying at the Catholic school her religious order runs. Since I had been teaching English in India, I asked Sr. Monica if there was anything I could do to help "earn" my keep, since she was putting me up in a nice little studio apartment. She put me in contact with another one of the sisters, and I spent my mornings with the 4 and 5 year olds in the Montessori classroom. They were so cute! I would work with a small group of children for about 45 minutes, using their educational aids to teach them English pronunciation and a few words. If you get a chance to volunteer in Thailand, take it. There are so many opportunities and it really made my experience more enjoyable.

Well, there you have it. This is Thailand: The Good. Stay tuned for Thailand: The Bad.

The Rough Guide to Thailand (Rough Guides)

Travel As Pilgrimage

2011-07-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

I've been reflecting lately on what I want this blog to be and what I want it to look like in the future. I never intended it to be anything but a place where I could write about my travels so my friends and family could follow along. It all started in 2005 as I was preparing to ride my 1980 Vespa P200 motorscooter on the Scooter Cannonball Run across the United States.

Blogging was kind of a "new" thing back then and I didn't really know what I was doing. I had to pick a name for my blog. I chose the name Renegade Pilgrim for several reasons. The main reason is it was the "group" name I chose when I decided to attend World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada back in 2002. The name came to me because I was being a bit of a renegade for not going with the group with the Archdiocese of Portland and because I viewed the trip as a pilgrimage to see Pope John Paul II. For some reason, the name has continued to stick with me, both as an online persona and the name of this blog. But a lot of people don't understand it, so I thought I would explain myself a little bit here.

Pilgrimage. That's a big word with many meanings to different people. According to the Free Dictionary online, pilgrimage is:

1. A journey to a sacred place or shrine.

2. A long journey or search, especially one of exalted purpose or moral significance.

My first experience of international travel happened in 1995 when I went to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage with a group of 50 from Christ the King Catholic Church in Missoula, MT. I was a college junior who was floundering in school. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I was active in the Catholic Campus Ministry at Christ the King and had a dynamic pastor in Fr. Jim Hogan. At the time, Fr. Hogan would lead pilgrimages to the Holy Land every two or three years. He always made sure there was space for a group of college students to go and the trip was always during Spring Break.

Part of our preparation included learning about what pilgrimage was and wasn't. I don't remember much (hey it was 15+ years ago!) but one of the things that really stuck with me out of that first international travel experience was that travel can be a sacred journey. Pilgrimages or sacred journeys can mean different things to different people. For some people, going to Wrigley Field or Lambeau Field are sacred journeys. For me, walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain is a sacred journey. It's different for everyone.

Sometimes, I feel like I travel a little bit differently than other people. I like to think I am unique! I'm the kind of person who goes to Rome, Italy to see the Colosseum and the Vatican, but also ends up at the Fire Brigade Museum with my sister because she is a professional firefighter and we know that fire fighting started in ancient Rome. During that same trip, we also went on the Scavi Tour into the catacombs under St. Peter's Basilica because it sounded interesting and at the time, no one had ever heard of it. In Barcelona, I skipped the Picasso museum and went to the Chocolate Museum instead. It was several dollars cheaper and my "ticket" was a chocolate bar! Yum! I don't always do the things that tourists are supposed to do. I guess that's where the renegade part of my name comes out the strongest. I traveled to Bethlehem on my own and took a day trip to Ramallah. Why? Why not! I have some of the best stories from stepping outside the box and challenging myself to do things I wouldn't normally do.

So, there you have it folks....a little explanation to help you understand where I am coming from. I really, truly hope to continue this blog and provide a place where I can share my experiences, opinions (I have lots of those!) and travel stories with you. There is a whole two countries from my 2010 RTW trip that I have yet to blog about. Stay tuned for stories about Thailand and Japan.

There's A First Time For Everything

2011-07-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today, I had the opportunity to attend my very first press briefing! I received an invite a few weeks ago from the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau to attend a small gathering of public relations and marketing representatives from Maui, Lana'i and Moloka'i. I thought it would be fun to check out because I have never been to Hawaii before and perhaps I would learn a few things that might interest me in planning a trip to Hawaii in the near future.

I arrived at the Hotel Modera in downtown Portland and was warmly greeted by everyone, including being given a beautiful plumeria lei, flown in fresh from Moloka'i. It was almost overwhelming how welcome I felt! The spirit of aloha shined through in all of the interactions I had with everyone.

There was a powerpoint presentation about tourism to Hawaii, with various statistics and information. After this, the presentation moved towards specific niches specific to Maui, Lana'i and Moloka'i. I was especially captivated by the following areas: food, culture and adventure/activities. Even though the focus was more on resorts, which is a bit different than I like to travel, I was reassured there are plenty of budget options for someone like me who enjoys hiking, camping, backpacking, learning about local culture, and meeting the locals.

It was a great first experience for a press briefing and I look forward to planning a visit to Hawaii in the next year. Mahalo to all of the representative from Hawaii I met today! Enjoy your time in Portland and I hope you get to try a Voodoo Donut before you leave town!

Things I Learned At TBEX 2011

2011-06-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

I am certain I am not the first, and I am certain I will not be the last, but I figured I should add my .02 to the conversation about TBEX 2011 and what I thought of it. I'll be posting more over the next week or so about some of the many things I did while in Vancouver, BC attending TBEX. Here is my list:
Put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to go up to people you don’t know and talk to them. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. You never know when you might make a good connection, meet one of your favorite bloggers, or learn something new. If they don't want to talk, or the conversation is awkward, then just move along. There's plenty of people to talk to.

Get your social media stuff in order. If you have a twitter account, make sure your tweets are not protected. If they are protected, then no one can see them unless they are following you! I finally realized this and once I unprotected my twitter account, TBEX was my oyster! I was able to participate in what was going on at TBEX, the number of followers and people I follow increased a lot, and it made my experience that much better.

Bring business cards. Even if you are just a small fish in a big sea of bloggers, bring a basic business card with your name, email address, phone (if you want to), blog address, and twitter handle. Make sure you order them at least 30 days before TBEX or you might have to resort to using a pen/paper. It's a good idea to write a short note on the back of the card about the conversation so you can remember later. I like Moo cards, but they take a while to arrive and mine didn’t arrive before I left. Boo! I had to resort to my VistaPrint calling cards, which just don’t have the same “oooh….ahhhh” factor as the Moo cards.

Arrive early and/or stay late. I came to Vancouver two days before TBEX started and still found myself wishing I had more time to explore and see things. Try to come early to the city TBEX is located in so you can take part in pre-event activities and sightsee on your own. It gets busy at the conference and you may find yourself with very little free time to explore. If you can’t come early, think about staying a little bit late.

Keep notes and take pictures. Take a small notebook (I prefer Moleskine notebooks) and a pen so you can write down notes, thoughts, and details to help you remember the people you have met and talked to. Bring a camera, too. Take lots of pictures!

If your needs are not being met, do something about it. Don’t be afraid to plan a meet-up for bloggers who share your niche or just for people who want to meet up. It’s the best way to meet people. I noticed that there wasn't anything for LGBT Bloggers, so I created a Twtvite and a few people showed up who I wouldn't have met otherwise. Be pro-active!

DO NOT FORGET YOUR TOOTHBRUSH! Yeah, I did. Guess how much it cost to replace? $5 CDN at the corner market down the street from the hostel. Ouch! The budget traveler in me cringed when I found out the price. Later on, I found out there was a drug store a few blocks in the other direction where I could have purchased one for less. Oh well. Lesson learned.

Do any of you bloggers who attended TBEX have other contributions for what they learned at TBEX? Leave them in the comments section.

It's Time To Blog Again

2011-06-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been very lax about blogging lately. I got kinda burned out on traveling while in Thailand and just stopped. I resorted to sharing my Thailand and Japan adventures on Facebook instead. It was so much easier to do in 140 word "sound bites" than to really write about my experiences in those places.

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend a MeetPlanGo Meetup with Shelly Ott and Michaela Potter hosted by BootsnAll in downtown Portland. It was awesome! There are a bunch of people in town for Chris Guillebeau's World Domination Summit. I was able to do some networking with fellow travelers and get a little bit of inspiration, which I have been lacking since coming home last September.

As a result of this uplifting evening, I have decided to write down some goals for this blog. Here they are:

1) Attend the Travel Blog Exchange Conference in Vancouver, BC from June 9-11, 2011
2) Write one blog entry per week, building up to more as time progresses.
3) Focus more on narrative writing, less on "journal-style" writing with an emphasis on story-telling.
4) Network with other travelers online and in person, when possible.
5) Work towards a new blog design and web presence. Make some decisions about web hosting, layouts and design. Maybe even get a logo!

I cannot wait until next weekend in Vancouver, BC! I feel like this is the beginning of something big for me.

I'm Back!!!

2010-09-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, thank you to all my friends who made contributions towards the end of my trip. It was just enough to make me feel like I could enjoy myself at the end of my trip in Japan.

Second, again, I apologize for not keeping more up to date with the blog in the last month or so. I've been working on some posts and will be doing more "general" posts on Thailand and Japan. Those will be coming in the next week or so.

I also have been brainstorming some "Best Of" posts which will include pictures and more insight into some of the places I have visited in the past five months. I am also working on some other more generic posts with travel tips, packing lists and other fun stuff.

So, stay tuned as I get you up to date on the last month and a half of my travels and share my reflections as I process this whole trip in the coming months.

A Plea For Help....

2010-08-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you for reading my blog. It makes me very happy to know you are interested in my travels, my experiences and this adventure I have been on for the past four months.

Second of all, please accept my apologies for not keeping current with the blog the past few weeks. I am hoping to fix that in the near future. I have been reflecting on my experiences so far in Thailand and hope to be able to put those ideas into a concise blog entry in the next few days.

Third, and this is the most important part of this post: I NEED YOUR HELP! I have been monitoring my bank accounts and when I set off on this grand adventure, I was pretty certain I had enough cash to get me through it all. Unfortunately, Europe proved to be much costlier than anticipated and my plans for couchsurfing fell short of expectations, especially in Europe, which caused my housing costs to be extremely high (and we're talking about staying in hostels, not hotels). I've been traveling on a very tight budget since then, spending my money on food, housing and transportation. Every once in a while I have splurged on something, like a cooking course or a ziplining adventure (in Thailand these are CHEAP!), but for the most part, I have been just living a very simple life (and enjoying it). People I meet are always asking me why I am not drinking beer or mixed drinks and I always explain to them, "It's expensive to drink! I can't afford it!". In Thailand, I have been eating a lot of street food (which I LOVE!!) and trying to avoid sit-down places unless the cuisine looks intriguing.

I am getting ready to leave Thailand for Japan, which will be one of the most expensive places I will visit. I will be staying with a good friend, which will keep my costs low, but I am still very much concerned about money.

I am asking for any of you out there in cyberspace who find my blog a good read, or enjoy reading about my adventures to consider making a small donation. Anything will help. I figure if all 500+ of my Facebook friends gave a couple of dollars, I will have enough money to finish my trip and have a small cushion until my first paycheck comes in. Yep, I have a job lined up for when I return home! Some of you reading this have already made huge contributions to my trip. You know who you are. I am very grateful for those contributions of time, talent and treasure. I am asking for help from those who have been following along and might have a spare dollar or two lying around. I know the economy sucks right now, so I don't expect much. I hate asking for help. It's killing me to do it. I know that this experience is something I will treasure forever and it brings me great joy to be able to share it with all of you as I have been traveling.

There is a PayPal donation button on the upper right part of my blog. If you click on this, it will take you to PayPal where you can make a donation. If you want me to, I will even send you a postcard from Japan! Please leave your name and address on PayPal if you want me to send a postcard.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

07.14.2010 to 07.18.2010

2010-08-05T03:48:00.000-07:00

Bangalore, India

These are just a few more of my reflections from my stay with the Salesian sisters. I apologize if my entries are getting more vague and less specific but now that I have had time to slow down a bit, I’ve had more time to think and reflect on my experiences so far.

Missionaries from India
Mike, the volunteer coordinator, arrived a few days ago. He is staying here for a bit because we have electricity (most of the time!) and a reliable internet connection so he can write his reports and keep in touch with Home of Hope in the U.S.

A couple of days ago, Mike and I were invited by two Salesian priests that live down the road, Fr. Joe and Fr. Lionel, to have lunch with them. Mike and I had paid a visit to Fr. Lionel earlier in the week because Mike wanted to talk to Father about the work he does in Africa. Fr. Lionel has been a missionary priest in Sierra Leone for several years. He shared with us many pictures and information about the situation in Sierra Leone and what the Salesians are doing there to make life better for the people who have been through a lengthy civil war in the last decade.

The Salesians have set up schools and homes for the children who have survived the civil war. Many of them are orphans or were child soldiers and there is much work to be done to rehabilitate them. It was heart-breaking to hear about it, but the Salesians are working hard to improve the lives of these children so they can have normal, adult lives. When asked if the poverty in Africa was worse than India, Father Lionel replied, “Yes, it is worse in Africa, because in India we have hope. In Africa, there is no hope. So we must bring hope to them and show them the value of human life and dignity.” Wow. I am so inspired by these priests and sisters I have met in India.

The Church in India
It has been three months of traveling so far for me. In that time, I have traveled through France, Spain and Italy (all three of which are more secular than Catholic anymore), onto Israel and Jordan (where Islam and Judaism are the majority religions) and into India (where Hinduism is the majority religion).

While in Europe, I experienced a lot of different emotions and thoughts about the Catholic Church. I walked through hundreds of little towns, all of them with Catholic Churches and most of them closed. I attended Mass when I could and was usually the youngest person by twenty years in the Church.

I had the distinct sense that the Catholic Church as I know it, is dying in Europe. For all I know, it may already be dead. It was very disheartening and kind of made me sad.

Here I was, a pilgrim on an ancient path, walking as millions of pilgrims have before me, only to realize that the Church, whom I have a very precarious relationship with at the moment, is losing ground at an alarming rate in the Western world.

Now, I am in India and I am experiencing the complete opposite. I went to Sunday morning Mass at 7 a.m. and there were at least 500 people at Mass. They had at least three more Masses after that one! All of them full, according to the sisters. The Church is growing, building churches, vocations are blossoming and the church is doing amazing work with the poor here. I am in constant amazement at the way the Church works with the communities here to give them a hand up, not a hand out.

So, what now?
Well, as I write this, my stay in India is coming to a close. I am 100% sure it was not long enough and I feel like there is still more for me to do here. I have told the sisters and the students I plan to come back in a year and stay longer. I have asked for them to pray for me to 1) find a job when I return home and 2) to save every penny I can!

Trying to explain to someone who has very little in India that I also have very little in the U.S. is very difficult. It is assumed that since you have the money to travel, you have A LOT of money. Well, in relation to the yearly income of an average Indian family, yes, I do have A LOT of money. In relation to the rest of the U.S., I do not have a A LOT of money. I funded this trip off an insurance settlement I received last year and cashing out a small retirement account from an old job. I had several kind friends, who through their contributions, also helped make this trip possible.

Here is what I do know. I will be returning to India next year. I would like to spend at least three months there, maybe more. I would like to teach English again, but I would also like to work on a documentary project about the Salesians and the work they do in India. Everyone has a story to tell and I think there is quite a story to be told about this group of Salesian priests, brothers, and sisters.

07.08.2010 to 07.13.2010

2010-08-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

Bangalore, India

The past few days in India have been kind of a blur. I arrived on a Wednesday, taught English on Thursday and Friday, then had the weekend to explore. Instead of giving you the play-by-play, I thought I would give some of the highlights. So, let’s start from the beginning.

I’m Teaching English
I don’t know how to teach ENGLISH!!! Yes, I teach CPR back home and I have taught catechism classes in the past, but English is sooooo different. The vocational school I am at has very little in the way of resources, so handouts are not an option as there is no copy machine. I just discovered the library the other day and have started using it to find reading materials. I am using my laptop in the afternoons to get online and do as much research as I can to find information and activities for my classes. I have three classes. Two have pretty good English skills and the third class needs a lot of work.

This past weekend I was able to make it to a bookstore and bought some books to use with my students. I bought two vocabulary books and a grammar book, plus some “Scooby Doo” reading phonetic books. I am focusing on talking and pronunciation, so we are doing a lot of reading out loud in class and in small groups, plus homework assignments that don’t allow for cheating. I’ve noticed that all of the girls copy off each other RELENTLESSLY, so I have made it quite clear this is not okay and make sure I give them clear, concise instructions for homework so they understand they need to do their own work. This is a part of Indian culture, I think. I was having a conversation with a priest the other day about corruption in India vs. the U.S. He said that in India, corruption is at a much lower level. It’s not uncommon to have to bribe low-level officials to get what you need. In the U.S., our corruption is at a much higher level in the government with lobbyists and the big-wigs. I have to agree with him.

The girls in my classes range in age to late teens and to early twenties, all of them have completed high school (I believe) and are continuing their education at this vocational school. They offer training in secretarial skills, tailoring and electrical technology. For many of these girls, it’s the stepping stone they need to get a shot at a better life. Bangalore is the “Tech Capital” of India and there are lots of opportunities for jobs if you have the right training and the English skills. Many of the companies are U.S.-based and good English skills are very important. The sisters drill this in and only allow English to be spoken on the campus.

Scooter Heaven
Indeed, I am in heaven here with all the scooters I have seen. There are lots of small cc motorcycles too. I have seen lots of Bajaj scooters, saw my first LML-badged Vespa the other day, and I’ve even seen a few Piaggio Apes running around. The three-wheeled Bajaj auto-rickshaws are also everywhere and I am hoping to take a ride in one in the next day or so.

Food
The sister’s are feeding me very well. I am eating three square meals a day and not really finding a need to snack. Rice is served at all three meals, usually, along with two vegetable dishes and a meat dish, sometimes a soup, too. There are also homemade tortillas (I don’t know what they call them) plus fresh fruit, much of it from their very own backyard. I have become a fan of the fresh mangoes, even though one of the sisters keeps telling me it’s the end of the season. Sr. Lily has taught me the best way to eat them since I’ve never really been able to figure it out back home. They are the sweetest I have ever had! I have been introduced to fruits such as the sweet lime, the custard apple and the jack fruit. I also enjoy the plantains and bananas at each meal.

Every day at 4p, we have afternoon tea, which I look forward to. The tea is really good. I am hoping to find out how they make it before I leave so I can make it at home.

I have ventured out and found an Italian coffee shop serving Lavazza coffee (yeah, it’s not Illy, but it will do!) and had a nice coffee drink from there over the weekend. I really want to try the street food, but fear for my stomach, so I will wait until the right opportunity arises.

Animals
Okay, yes, there are cows EVERYWHERE! They wander freely along the street and I am surprised more of them are not hit by cars. On Sunday, I was invited along to go visit a priest in a local hospital. On the way, we stopped at a produce market. I was sitting in the front seat of the car and watched a cow walking down the street, and as it was walking by a pile of mangoes, it grabbed one! I just about died when I saw it! The woman who was running the produce booth chased after the cow with a stick. It walked right by my open window and I gave it a smack too.

The sisters have three cows in the front yard of the compound. I am guessing they use them for milk, but I haven’t really asked about that yet. They also have two dogs and a cat. The cat is hilarious. He will sit outside the back door while we are eating and howl like mad until we bring him some table scraps! I haven’t really played with the dogs, though one of them has kept me up late at night due to his incessant yapping. He wants to be with people, not in his dog house and he lets the whole neighborhood know about it!

On Saturday, I was out on the porch area outside my room and I startled a rather large lizard (about 8 inches, including tail). He went to the other side of the porch, I sat down and started working on my lesson plans for the week, occasionally glancing over at the lizard. He was eyeing a cricket. Very slowly, he made his way to within 4 inches of the cricket…..then he moved so fast before I knew it he had the cricket in his mouth. He sat there for quite a while working on getting it in his mouth. It was the most fascinating thing I have ever seen!

I haven’t seen anything too exotic, but I do have goal of seeing a monkey in India before I leave. Sr. Lily said they might be able to take me to this nature reserve just outside of town on Sunday. I hope so!

Amman, Jordan to Delhi, India to Bangalore, India

2010-07-15T00:07:00.001-07:00

07.07.2010

Today was a really long day of travel. I left Amman, Jordan last night and arrived in Delhi, India around 5a. Our flight was a bit late. That was okay. I knew I had plenty of time to get to my connecting flight to Bangalore.

I got in line for passport control and when it was my turn, I handed over the paperwork and then proceeded to get questioned about where I was going. I told the man I was going to Bangalore and he wanted an address. I explained to him that I didn’t know the address, someone was picking me up at the airport. Then I got questioned more about where I was going and what I was doing and I could tell he was getting upset with me. We finally agreed that I would write down the name of the organization and the city I was going to on the form and then he stamped my passport/visa and I was on my way.

I collected my luggage from baggage claim and proceeded to find the area to transfer to domestic flights. Everyone was very helpful and made sure I got on the right shuttle bus to the domestic terminal. I collected my bag off the shuttle bus and found the IndiGo ticket counter. They were very efficient and I was checked in with no problems at all.

I went through security AGAIN. I swear I have been patted down more in the last 24 hours than the last 2 months of traveling. I am starting to feel self-conscious about what I am wearing! (which, by the way, is just the usual t-shirt, pants and sandals) In Israel, Jordan and now, India, the women are screened separately from the men and receive the pat down in a little curtain area. In India, your carry-on bag also has to have a special tag with a stamp on it from the security checkpoint. I made it through with flying colors, then I started to wander around the terminal. I bought a fruit salad and some coconut water for breakfast. I exchanged the last of my euros into rupees and also got some money from an ATM, but I didn’t get enough. I wasn’t sure what the exchange rate was and didn’t want to have a repeat of what I did in Budapest!

Our flight finally boarded at 9a and as soon as I got on the plane, I fell asleep. I was exhausted! I don’t even know if they served food or drinks because I was sound asleep the entire flight

We arrived on time and I retrieved my bag. I was supposed to meet Sr. Lily, so I started looking for a nun and I found her without any difficulties. She gave me a very warm welcome. We got in the van and started to leave the parking lot. The driver accidentally dropped the parking ticket slip into the car door and lost it. We had to tear the door apart and finally found it. I got the great idea to use the gum in my mouth and attach it to a stick to reach in their to get it. It took a while but I was able to retrieve it and then we were on our way! Sr. Lilly was impressed with me, I think.

It took us about two hours to get from the airport to the Bannerghatta vocational school the Salesians run in Bangalore. They work with primarily poor girls, helping them with their English skills, which according to the sisters is a vital part of their training. Without English, these girls don’t have a chance at a job or creating a better life for themselves.

While we were driving, it started to rain. I was so excited! Monsoon season is coming and I am enjoying the thought of having rain after spending so much time in the desert the last two weeks. I also enjoyed all of the scooters and motorcycles and the chaos of driving in India. I mostly spent the time in awe at how more people are not killed while driving here!

Upon arrival to the vocational school, Sr. Lily showed me to my room and I washed up a bit before having lunch. After lunch, I took a nap. I had intended to just sleep for an hour or two, but it ended up being a bit longer than that. I was retrieved by another sister who brought me over for dinner. More of the sisters were there and we had a great conversation about my travels and I learned a little bit about the school and their plans to use me to teach English. I am really excited about this and can’t wait to start tomorrow!

Tel Aviv, Israel to Amman, Jordan

2010-07-15T00:06:00.001-07:00

07.06.2010

I got up at 4a this morning to catch a cab to the airport at 4:30a. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15a and when flying out of Ben Gurion Airport, it is highly recommended to arrive at least three hours before your flight to get through all of the security.

I got to the airport a little bit before 5a and started the process of going though security. I got in line where the Royal Jordanian counter was located. The line was not too bad and I made it through without any problems. I continued along and put my bags on the conveyor belt to go through the x-ray machine. No one told me to go anywhere else so I waited until the Royal Jordanian counter opened only to find out I still had to have my bags searched. Grrrr!!! I went back to that line and waited forever to get my bags searched. This time it was fairly painless. I made some small talk with the guy as he went through my bags. He had never been to the U.S. but wants to do a coast-to-coast trip someday so I was giving him travel tips as he was rummaging through my things.

After that, I checked in for my flight and then went to the next security check. This included going through the metal detector and sending my carry-on through the x-ray AGAIN. Something in this particular pair of pants I am wearing keeps setting off the metal detectors, so I got the pat down and also had my carry-on bag searched thoroughly. I carry all my electronics in this bag, so it makes sense they would want to go through all of that. The girl going through my stuff was very nice and I made some small talk with her as well.

After all of the craziness of security, I was able to relax a bit and go find some food. I had an iced coffee with a chocolate croissant from McDonald’s. They don’t have egg McMuffins (for obvious reasons), so this was the next best thing I could think of for a quick meal.

The flight left on time and we arrived in Jordan a little bit after 9a. Royal Jordanian is a really nice airline. I love their flight attendant outfits. They totally remind me of the early 50’s when flying was fun and exciting.

I had a 10 hour layover in Amman and had thought about going into town for the day, but what I didn’t know is that Royal Jordanian puts up all of their customers in a hotel for the 10 hour layover. It was just what I needed. I was so tired. I took a nap and a shower and chilled out for the day.

I was able to surf the web a bit too, which was good because after my nap, I checked my email to find a frantic email from Paul, the director of the Home of Hope program I was going to be volunteering for in India. Apparently, I had booked my flight from Delhi to Bangalore for July 6th instead of July 7th!! I can’t believe I made such a big mistake. I guess I got a bit confused with the fact I left Tel Aviv on July 6th but wasn’t arriving in Delhi until July 7th. I had to think fast and started by calling IndiGo Airlines to see if there was any possibility of changing my ticket even though it was non-refundable. They wouldn’t budge, so I went online and bought a separate one-way ticket for the right date and was able to email Paul so he could get the information to the right people. I felt so bad! The Mother Superior, Sister Lily, had been at the airport waiting for me. Thankfully, it was not too costly of a mistake, but I still was out another $130 plane ticket.

Royal Jordanian picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the airport in time for our flight. I had dinner at the airport, which was good because I still had a about ten Jordanian dinar from earlier and needed to get rid of it.

The flight took off a little bit late. I couldn’t sleep right away so I ended up eating on the plane and watching the movie, “Flicka 2”, before finally sleeping for the last part of the flight.

Amman, Jordan to Tel Aviv, Israel (aka the IDF Shakedown Day)

2010-07-15T00:05:00.001-07:00

07.05.2010

I got up early to get breakfast in the hostel. It was included in the price and not really much to write home about. A little NesCafe, some hard boiled eggs and pita with jam. I found a taxi driver as I was walking towards the street. I told him where I needed to go (the hostel had written it in Arabic for me) and respectfully asked him to turn on the meter. THREE TIMES!!! On the third time, he just tapped the meter to show me it wasn’t working (yeah, right) and then I just sat there with a pissed-off, angry American look that I am starting to perfect here in the Middle East. It seems to be the only way anyone takes me seriously. He tried to make some small talk with me and failed. It went something like this:

“Do you smoke?”
“No, that stuff will kill you!”

End of conversation until we arrived at the bus station. He charged me 5JD, which is what it should have cost, I was just waiting for him to try and fleece me and then he was going to have a big problem on his hands. I think he knew that and so he only charged me what was fair.

So, my understanding with the bus from Amman to Tel Aviv was that it took you the whole way. That’s how the guidebooks made it seem. Well, that was wrong. So, I was the only person on the bus from Amman to the Israel/Jordan border. Great. Nobody told me how the bus worked, so I got off when instructed and went inside to have the Jordanians check my bag, only I forgot my duffel bag on the bus, so they had to get the bus driver to come back and I retrieved my duffel bag. They either thought I was incredibly stupid (raises hand) or hiding something. There were not a lot of signs telling me what to do like there was at the southern crossing, so I don’t think it was entirely my fault. I walked over to passport control and was questioned about what I did for a living, where I had been, etc. They stamped my passport and told me to go wait for the bus to the Israeli border, so I went outside and found the place to wait.

From the Jordanian border, you take another bus to the Israeli border. At this point, there were five of us on the bus. The bus went to a spot, stopped, then we waited for an Israeli border patrol person to slowly walk around the bus, then slowly walk back to her partner, then motion for the bus to come forward. The bus pulled up and dropped us off at the Israeli border and passport control. We all walked in and went through a metal detector and had our bags x-rayed.

This is where the fun began for me. Since I had been in Israel before and then left to go to Jordan and then was leaving Israel tomorrow, I was very confused about how to answer the questions, so I got “selected” to have what I like to call the “IDF Security Shakedown”. They took everything out of both of my bags and asked me a bunch of questions about if I had been given anything (I forgot about the envelope Rachel had written her address in Hebrew in! Oops!) and what I had been up to in Jordan, etcetera, etcetera. After I got all my stuff packed back in my backpack and duffel, I went through passport control and they wanted to know my father’s name. I almost replied, “Dad” since this was my initial response, but I remembered my dad’s name and told them. Then they wanted to know his dad’s name. It took me a few seconds longer than it should have since he’s been dead 20+ years! I swear I am on some list I don’t know about. Or do I really look that suspicious?

I finally made it through and as I was walking out the door to the waiting area, an Arab woman asked me if I was waiting for the Trust Bus (the company I took the bus with) and I said, “Yes” and she said they had been waiting for me and to follow them to the taxi. So, we took a taxi the rest of the way into Tel Aviv. It was the most bizarre way to get across the border, but it worked and only was about 35JD or $45USD.

I arrived at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station and walked from there to the Florentine Hostel, my home for the night. It was quite a walk but I didn’t have any shekels to take a cab, so I sucked it up and took my time.

I arrived at the hostel without getting lost, which is always a plus! I checked in and was immediately made to feel at home. I wish I had discovered this place before the end of my time in Israel because I would have stayed there longer!

I went out to find an ATM to get cash to pay for the hostel and an expenses for the next 12 or so hours. I stopped at a gelato place on my way back. I needed to get my lemon/mint gelato fix one more time before leaving Israel! It was so good! I seriously think the Israelis do gelato better than the Italians. It is much fresher than anything I tried when I was in Italy.

I had forgotten to go to the post office when I was out trying to find money, so I went to go look for a post office. The one I found was closed, so I will have to wait to send Rachel and Baruch my Lonely Planet Israel. On my way back to the hostel, I came across a guy on a 1968 Vespa Sprint 150. It was the epitome of a “rat bike” and I had a brief conversation with the guy riding it. He had owned it for 20 years. Of course, the one vintage Vespa I come across in Israel and I didn’t have my camera with me! Oh well. I stopped at a market on the way back to the hostel to get some snack foods, including this delicious concoction that Rachel’s boys turned me onto. It’s a chocolate pudding with whipped cream on top that is to die for!

I went back to the hostel and hung out for the rest of the night. Rafi, the owner, arranged for a cab to pick me up in the morning. It just seemed easier, safer and quicker than dealing with public transportation at 4a. I also had a nice Skype conversation with my sister and my mom, separately. I wasn’t sure what my internet access was going to be for the next couple of days, so I thought it would be a good idea to talk one more time. I finally went to bed around Midnight.....

Petra, Jordan to Amman, Jordan

2010-07-15T00:04:00.000-07:00

07.04.2010

Today was adventure-filled and perfectly appropriate for celebrating Fourth of July, America’s Independence Day. I hitched a ride with Hillary and Jen, the two British girls I met yesterday. Both of them are from the U.K. and getting their advanced degrees in studies related to Arabic countries. They have been volunteering at an orphanage in Amman teaching English for the past six weeks. Hillary’s degree is in Arabic Studies and Jen’s is in Arabic Literature written during the Iraq/Iran War. Jen had tracked down this obscure book that even the author doesn’t have a copy of it. The author’s home had been taken over by the Iraqi government and all of her work had been destroyed. Jen had been looking for this particular book for a year and found it in Jordan at this University we stopped at on our way to Amman from Petra.

Jen was our driver of the POS Chevy Aveo they rented from this guy who looks like Mr. Las Vegas Pimp-Man, according to Jen and Hillary. This car was totally trashed and in my opinion, only hitting 4 out of the 6 cylinders because it was gutless on the hills. It should have been a lot more peppy, but otherwise it did just fine and Jen is my hero as far as driving goes in a foreign country.

We found the University after asking around for directions a few times. Jen and Hillary are both fluent in Arabic, which is AWESOME. We parked the car and walked up to the security gate. Each time we stopped somewhere, Jen had to explain why we were there and what we needed and then someone either gave us directions or took us to where we needed to go next. So, we were given directions to the library. Once in the library, we were taken to the director of the library, where once again, Jen explained her story. The director sent someone to find the book, he brought the book back and I thought Jen was going to cry she was so happy! She asked if she could photocopy it and the director sent they guy to photocopy it for her. We were offered Arabic coffee (which I absolutely LOVE!) and sat for a bit chatting. We were able to excuse ourselves for a bit and went outside to sit in the shade.

While we were sitting on the bench outside of the library, this Jordanian girl and two of her friends stopped and wanted to know why we were there. We were the only Westerners on the campus and stuck out even though we tried to blend as much as possible. Jen and Hillary answered in Arabic which impressed her even more! She was very animated and very much in my personal space, which I found to be uncomfortable and quite funny all at the same time! She was firing questions at us in English and Arabic and was so funny, I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

When she left, Jen went into the library to check on the progress of the book and came back about five minutes later with the copy in her hands. She was so excited! It was so neat to be a part of that.

We took off quickly after that with our next stop, Karak Castle, about an hour or so away. Throughout Jordan and much of the Middle East, there are these annoying speed bumps in the middle of nowhere on the highways. If you don’t pay careful attention, you can hit them at a higher speed than you should. Well, Jen accidentally hit one going a little faster than we should have. I noticed afterwards that the gauges in the dashboard had stopped working, so we pulled over. The car sounded fine, but Jen shut it off to see if turning it back on would reset the gauges. Yeah. The car decided to not start at all. No noise, no nothing. We all got out and opened the hood to take a look. This car was a piece of work! Half the things that should be connected were not. The battery was not secured, so when we hit the bump, it moved. All of the wires were still attached and the fuse box seemed fine, too. I checked the spark plug wires and it looked like one of them was loose but I didn’t feel comfortable messing with it.

We tried to start the car again and this time it actually made a sound, so that was a good sign. We decided to let the car sit for a bit and try it again after it had a chance to cool down. Hillary went to get us sodas and snacks. We were sitting there drinking our sodas when a woman told us there was a mechanic further down the road and we could take a bus there and he could help us. Jen and I decided to take the bus while Hillary stayed with the car. As we were walking towards the busses, two guys asked if they could help, one of them was a mechanic. We showed them the car and explained what had happened. They looked things over and decided to try to bumpstart the car. We all got behind it and rolled it downhill a bit and it started right up!

We took off for Karak and got there in time for a late lunch. I had a chicken kebab with some rice and a Coke. We wandered over to Karak Castle and paid the 1JD to get in. They had a nice museum with lots of information about the history of the area. We looked around for a bit and then decided we needed to make tracks to Amman in order to get there before dark.

The car was running really horrible at this point. We pulled over at one point because Jen was concerned it was overheating. I told her that it was fine, as long as the gauge didn’t go past the half-way to three-quarters mark, we were okay.

We finally arrived in Amman as it was getting dark and then the fun really began. Hillary was navigating and Amman is basically a city divided up by a bunch of hills and valleys. It was very confusing, adding to it that the people drive like maniacs and it was quite stressful. Oh, and did I mention the brakes had started to go out on the car and Jen was having to use the hand brake aka e-brake to stop?! Yeah, it was that bad.

Jen was a trooper and we found the car rental place after a bit. Poor Jen! She was shaking when we finally parked. She really did an amazing job, though. I never once felt like we were in any danger or close to getting in a wreck or anything like that.

Jen and Hillary proceeded to tell the car rental guy (aka Mr. Las Vegas Pimp Jordanian Car Rental Dude) about all of the problems we had, while he and his posse of pimps dismissed their concerns with “Well, thank God you made it okay, that’s all that really matters.” Yeah, buddy, you are lucky we made it safe and sound!

We cleared our stuff out of the car and one of the guys was going to give Jen and Hillary a ride back to their place. We gave each other hugs and kisses goodbye and I gave them my contact info. (I hope they are reading this, and feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong!) I asked where the best place was to get a taxi to the Farah Hostel and the guy offered to give me a ride, so we all piled into the car and he dropped me off about ten minutes later.

I made it to the hostel and decided to spring for a private room with a bathroom. It was late, I was tired and sweaty and I really didn’t feel like interacting with too many people. I took a shower and went to sleep. It had been a long, exhausting day, but it was the adventure I was promised!

Little Petra and a Rest Day

2010-07-12T05:09:00.001-07:00

07.03.2010

Hillary and I met up this morning after breakfast to go to Little Petra, which is about a 15 minute taxi ride away. It’s free to get in and there are less tourists than Petra proper. We shared a taxi to save money and also to be safer. The Bedouins “operate” Little Petra and it is well known that single female travelers sometimes have “issues” with them. All of the guidebooks recommend not going out there alone if you are a woman. Ibrahim, the co-owner of the hostel, called us a cab and negotiated a price of 15JD for the two of us. This included the taxi driver taking us to Little Petra, waiting for us while we walked around for an hour and bringing us back to Wadi Musa. It was a pretty good deal.

The cab driver was very nice. He stopped several times so we could get out of the car and take pictures. We arrived at Little Petra and agreed on a time to meet up to go back. Hillary had forgotten to change her sandals so we decided to take it easy on some of the scrambles we came across. We walked straight back to the main sight, up a moderately difficult rock formation, and past a Bedouin woman’s table of goods for sale. The view was pretty cool and there were hardly any other tourists there. On our way back to the taxi, Hillary and I stopped at the Bedouin woman’s table and Hillary bought two bracelets to help out the woman.

We made it back to the hostel by late morning and I had decided this was going to be a day of rest for me. I basically hung out in the hostel for the rest of the day working on planning the next steps of my trip. I left a few times to go get a soda or some sweets. I also watched the World Cup game between Argentina and Brazil, as well as the one between Germany and Uruguay. The Jordanians are big soccer fans, it seems! We had the internet café across the street from the hostel full of Jordanians, as well as travelers from the UK, Spain and I was the sole American (and one of two females!)

Hillary hadn’t been feeling well, so she went up to her room for the remainder of the day. She had mentioned to Gail, the co-owner of the hostel, that she and her friend Jen were going to be driving back to Amman the next day. My ears had perked up and I asked if I could hitch along for the ride. I offered to pay for gas and whatnot. Hillary and Jen both warned me about the car they had rented and had to PUSH up hills on the way here from Amman! They also had plans to stop at a University on the way back to look for a book for Jen’s graduate studies. I told them it sounded fine to me, that I was up for the challenge and looking for adventure. Their response: “Oh, you’ll get an adventure!” I didn’t realize how true that statement was going to be

Petra, Jordan

2010-07-12T05:08:00.001-07:00

07.02.2010

I was woken up around 5a this morning by all the people in my room getting ready to leave for a day trip to Wadi Rum. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I got up, took a shower, and packed up my stuff. I needed to find another place to stay.

I ate breakfast, then got my computer out and started doing some research on places to stay in Wadi Musa. Michelle and Katia were staying at Sabaa, just down the street and they said it was pretty nice, so I decided to walk over there to see if they had anything open. My plan was to do at least one night there and try to get a hold of Ghassab.

Gail, one of the owners, greeted me warmly and said they had a room available and the price was pretty good, especially since I would have my own room with bathroom. I took it and went off to find an ATM to get some money. I found one that worked with my card and returned to the hostel to get settled in.

I got my day pack together and went back downstairs to ask Gail about the best way to get to Petra from here. She recommended I walk, it was only about 15 minutes (downhill) and about 30 minutes (uphill and in the heat) to walk back. It sounded good to me so I set off for Petra.

Petra and the government of Jordan have set a new price structure for entrance into Petra. If you enter at the Eilat border crossing, you don’t have to pay an entrance tax anymore. It was only 5JD anyways, which is about $6.50USD. The Jordanian government figures most people are crossing at that border to go to Petra, so they raised the rate for admission into Petra at the beginning of the year from 21JD to 33JD for a one day pass, 38JD for a two day pass and I can’t remember what the three-day pass costs, but it was close to 60JD, I think. Starting November 2010, the rate is going up to 50JD for one day pass! Um yeah. I can get into ALL of the U.S. National Parks for a YEAR for the same price! I really hope there is a rebellion of some sort with tourists and that their admission numbers decrease so maybe the Jordanian government will realize they are being greedy. Their justification is that they are making things more “eco”-friendly. Um yeah, in order to do that, you will need to get rid of all the camels, horses and burros giving rides to tourists. I could go on about how bad all of this tourism is for the conservation of Petra, but I won’t.

I took a horse from the main entrance of Petra to the Siq and then walked the rest of the way. The first major attraction is The Treasury, made famous in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. I’ll admit it, I hummed the theme song to the movie as I approached. I couldn’t help myself!

Petra is HUGE and I had already decided I was not going to see everything, so I walked from the entrance all the way to the end of the “trail”. I stopped at one of the cheaper restaurants and took advantage of the all-you-can-eat 10JD buffet. I ran into the trio I had shared the taxi with and we ate together. They were trying to convince me to go to the Monastery with them but I was exhausted and had planned to head back into town and chill out for the night.

I walked back up the trail and stopped again at The Treasury to take more pictures since the lighting was better. I made it back to the hostel about 30 minutes later and took a nap before heading out for dinner.

I went to a place just around the corner and had a chicken kebab, arab salad and a coca cola. I ended up meeting a woman from Canada and chatted with her for a bit. I went back to the hostel and spent the evening chatting with Gail and Ibrahim as well as some other travelers.

Masada, Israel to Petra, Jordan aka A REALLY LONG DAY!

2010-07-12T05:07:00.001-07:00

07.01.2010

This morning, Tina and I got up at 4:15a and hit the Snake Trail at 4:45a. Sunrise was set for 5:40a and we had just under an hour to get to the top of Masada. I think it was a 400m climb, mostly straight up, with lots of zig-zags, and reminiscent of the “M” trail in Missoula, MT. Since I was at sea level, I figured it would be pretty easy. I was wrong. I am no longer in “Camino” physical condition! We made it up there with about five minutes to spare for the sunrise. There were probably two hundred people up there already, some who had walked and some who had taken the cable car. Many of them were part of Birthright groups from the U.S. Tina and I joked with a couple of guys that we met that we were probably the only two Christians on the whole mountain!

It was a spectacular view and we walked around for about an hour or so, looking at the remains of Masada. Some of it has been re-constructed to give a better idea of what things might have looked like when it was a fully populated fortress.

At about 7a, we descended Masada back down the Snake Trail and went straight to the cafeteria for breakfast. I was famished! I think I had two plates of food and also grabbed some fruit for later. After breakfast, I went upstairs to shower and pack up. We had to check out by 10a, but the bus I was planning to take to Eilat wasn’t set to arrive until 11:15a, so I hung out at the hostel for a bit before going out into the heat to wait.

I met another woman, Tania, who was also planning to go to Petra and we agreed to share taxis to the border and to Petra. I was pretty excited about this since I was dreading having to figure it out when I got there. Tania is from San Francisco, so we chatted about living on the West Coast and whatnot. The bus arrived and we were off to Eilat without incident.

When we arrived in Eilat, we went to find a taxi and two other girls from the bus asked if they could come with us. It was 36NIS for the four of us to taxi to the border. The border crossing was fairly painless, except for the lady in Israel being all cryptic about changing shekels to dinar. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what she was trying to say. I tried to ask her if there was an ATM on the Jordan side but she wouldn’t give me a straight answer, instead choosing to talk in “code”. I changed some shekels into dinar and called it good. I had enough dinar to get to Petra and then I would find an ATM later.

We crossed the border and that’s when the fun really began. There were some Jordanian police officers hanging around and a guy asked us if we needed a taxi and we told him we needed one to Petra. Then the police got involved and it became very confusing. We eventually found out there are only five taxis that service the border and they can only go into Aqaba. Then we would have to change taxis in Aqaba to another taxi to take us to Petra. Total cost would be 60JD, or 15JD each. So, we finally made it into a taxi and he took us to Aqaba and we ended up sitting in his driveway while we waited for the other taxi to come. The taxi driver had his son bring us out cold water, which was such a nice gesture.

The other taxi arrived and we were so fortunate to have the “angry Arab-American” taxi driver. He was mad he had been called in on his day off to take us to Petra. So, we received the brunt of his anger in many forms over the next two and a half hours.

It turns out he had lived in Nashville, TN for about 15 years before moving back to Jordan 10 years ago. He worked as a manager at Pizza Hut and as a car salesman. He was planning to move back to the U.S. in August because his children wanted to go to college there.

As the trip progressed, he started asking us questions about where we were staying. Michelle from Washington and Katia from Slovenia were going to a place called Valentines. As soon as he heard that, he went off about how horrible the owner was and how the place had changed names because the owner had been accused of rape, etc. Basically, he started bad-mouthing the place and “recommending” another place.

Tania told him about the place she was staying at and he didn’t have anything too terrible to say about it, but he still was pushing for the place he recommended.

You can imagine the response I got when I I told him I was couch surfing with a Bedouin. He became very animated and gave me a bunch of reasons why I shouldn’t stay with Ghassab. Keep in mind, this guy has impeccable references on Couchsurfing.com and there were no red flags in his profile.

We endured the “angry” taxi driver the whole three hours to Petra and finally, I was let off at the Circle, in the middle of Wadi Musa. My plan was to find a phone or someone with a phone I could borrow. Well, guess who offered to let me use his phone? Yeah. The owner of Valentine’s Hostel, the place we were warned about from “Mr. Angry Taxi Driver”. He had a few other people in his car, so I hopped in and he took me up the street to the hostel. I explained my situation and of course, he also bad-mouthed Ghassab as well. He offered to “dial” the number for me and I am fairly certain he didn’t. Then he showed me how Ghassab’s phone wasn’t even working. I was so frustrated at this point with Jordanian men in particular, I decided to cave and just stay there until I could figure out how to get a hold of Ghassab.

For the record, Valentine’s Hostel in Wadi Musa, Jordan is COMPLETE, UTTER, HOLE!!! Do not stay there. The backpackers and travelers I met were super nice, but the owner is a total con artist and I will tell everyone I know to avoid this place at all costs. They charge for toilet paper! If they suspect you are doing your laundry in the room, they will charge you for the water. (Good thing I washed my clothes in the shower…..)

My excuse for staying there was I was tired, I didn’t have a reliable way to get a hold of Ghassab, and I was starting to believe these jerks.

I went ahead and paid for dinner and breakfast at the hostel since I wasn’t really sure where I was in relation to other options. The food was quite good, probably the only thing about this place that was. I met some cool people from other parts of the US and Canada.

Several people were going to Petra After Dark and I decided to join them even though I was soooooo tired. I made friends with two girls who had been living on a kibbutz in Israel for the past few months. They were very nice and I enjoyed talking with them.

Petra After Dark is pretty neat. They light up the path to The Treasury (think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) with candles and then once you get there, they have more candles in front of The Treasury. There are rugs to sit on and then two Bedouins play different musical instruments, they serve you some tea and then it’s over. It was nice. We walked back to the main entrance and I was trying to figure out how to get back to the hostel since I was out of dinars. I managed to spot my friends from earlier and couldn’t wait to tell them where I was staying!

They invited me to go hang out with some guys they had met earlier at dinner. I decided to join them since it might get me closer to the hostel than I was at the moment! The guys invited us out for shee-sha (aka hookah or nargileh) and tea. I was excited to try it and we all decided apple would taste the best. It was definitely a different experience. We had tea, smoked and talked for probably two hours! I even asked them what they thought I should do about the couch surfing situation. They suggested I meet Ghassab and make my own opinion. They knew who he was and didn’t have anything bad to say about him. I told them that was the most honest thing I had heard all day. I decided to try and get a hold of Ghassab tomorrow to see if we could meet up first.

Eventually, I made it back to the hostel and I went to bed, almost 20 hours after I had woken up to see the sun rise on Masada.

Bethlehem, West Bank to Jerusalem, Israel to Masada, Israel

2010-07-12T05:06:00.001-07:00

06.30.2010

I woke up bright and early and walked up to Fadi and Abeer’s apartment. I was going to get a ride with Fadi to the border this morning and walk across to Israel. Fadi and Abeer also rent out rooms in their house to people volunteering in the West Bank. Two of their boarders were there having breakfast and I got to play “20 Questions” about couch surfing and my trip. It took all of my self-control to not express what I really thought about them charging couch surfers to stay there. Fadi and I left at 7:10a and he dropped me off just a few hundred meters from the border. The hospital he works at is located next to the border.

The border crossing is very ominous looking and there is HUGE wall unlike anything I have seen before. It rivals the wall on the U.S./Mexico border in California. Actually, I think it is worse. I haven’t been down to Mexico recently, but my recollection of how bad it is pales in comparison to what I experienced crossing from the West Bank to Israel.

First, you come to a fenced area that has an “Exit” sign, an “Entrance” sign and a “Humanitarian Entrance” sign. Well, I wasn’t on a humanitarian mission, so I went to the regular entrance. I walked about 30 meters up and got in line with everyone else. I felt like I was in a cage, and in a sense, I was. There was an iron fence on both sides, with razor barbed wire above me. In other words, if everyone decided to go ape-shit, I was gonna be right in the middle of it and had nowhere to go. It was not a good feeling.

After about twenty minutes, one of the men in front of me turned around and told me I was in the wrong line, I should go back and go through with the tourists. I explained to him that is not what the sign said, and I’ll just stay here for now. I didn’t feel comfortable moving through the crowd that was behind me now with my huge backpack. I also decided to commit an act of solidarity with the hundreds of Palestinians I was standing in line with.

[ON MY SOAPBOX]
Before any of you respond with opinions one way or the other, let me be perfectly clear about something. I do not support just Israel and I do not support just Palestine. I think both sides are wrong and both sides are right. Therefore, I made a conscious effort to get both sides of the story from many different people throughout Israel and Palestine on this visit. I have concluded that they just need to get along. Yeah, I know, it’s a simple solution to a complex situation with a lot of history, but that’s just how I feel. I’m not going to argue it with anyone, either.
[OFF MY SOAPBOX]

We waited almost an hour before the line moved and several of us were able to get through the first part of the checkpoint. The look on the Israeli soldier’s face when he saw me with all the Palestinian men was priceless and completely indicative of the privilege my U.S. Passport grants me. It was a mixture of shock and an “oops, sorry” shoulder shrug in my general direction. Yeah, thanks buddy.

The group then moved to another checkpoint and proceeded to cram themselves in a line to get through the next set of doors. Queuing is not something people in Europe or the Middle East have a firm grasp of. These guys were no different. There were two Israeli security officers standing above everyone on a gated platform of some sort. I wish I had taken pictures but I figured that might have gotten me in trouble so I refrained. I stood back and watched the group.

I met an Arab American woman from Chicago. She was so sweet. She asked, “Where are you from?“ I replied, “The United States” She said, “Me too! I am from Chicago. It is a pleasure to meet you here on this soil.“ I smiled back and said, “Yes, it is.“ We both knew the significance of me being in line with everyone. Eventually, they let the women and children through, then me, with my huge backpack. From here, there was a metal detector and x-ray machine. Following this checkpoint, we had to go through and show our papers or passports.

The Israeli soldiers seemed more concerned with sending text messages and talking on their cell phones than actually doing their job. They also seemed to take immense pleasure in making the Palestinians jump through as many hoops as possible, making sure they displayed their papers “just right”. When I showed my passport, they acted like they didn’t even care! I was barely given a glance.

I went out to where the busses and taxis were. There was an Arab bus and I asked if they were going to the Arab bus station and they were, so I hopped on. It’s always interesting the looks and questions I get on the Arab busses. I was repeatedly asked where I wanted to go and kept replying, “The Arab Bus Station”. My plan was to walk from there to Jaffa Road and catch the #20 bus to the Central Bus Station to catch a bus to Masada.

I got to the Central Bus Station and cleared security with just one question, “Is that one or two knives in your bag?” Yeah, they were worried about my two Leatherman’s, one large and one small one. Ha! Never mind there are soldiers everywhere with automatic weapons ready to go.

I bought my ticket at waited in “line” (I use that term loosely). The bus arrived and we all loaded in. I sat next to a woman from Germany who was traveling around he Middle East for six weeks. She had just completed her law degree and was taking a much needed break before having to find a job. She got off the bus at one of the Dead Sea stops to go experience the Dead Sea. I continued on to Masada.

The youth hostel at Masada is more like a hotel. It has a pool, basketball court, a lovely terrace overlooking the Dead Sea, and a cafeteria. I checked in and met my roommate in the dorm room. Her name is Tina and she’s from Vancouver, BC, Canada! We hit it off and talked about our plans for tomorrow and agreed to hike the Snake Trail together around 4:15a.

I spent the afternoon chilling out, had dinner in the cafeteria and then went to bed.