Dagan and Bree

Vietnam and Chinese New Year -- Video

2013-03-02T19:28:00.001-08:00

This is a collection of a few clips of video I threw together after a trip to Vietnam, over Chinese New Year. We traveled from the north, Hanoi, to the South, Ho Chi Minh City. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip but ended well. I will post some photos soon!

Vietnam

Download video: 720p (350MB)

A new member of the family

2012-08-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Ayla Jean Potter joined our family yesterday, August 13th, at 6:00am. She decided to arrive fashionably late… Three days late to be precise. After a swift 27 hours of labor, our beautiful baby girl weighed in at 7lbs 15oz (3.595 kg) and stretched 21.1in (53.5cm).

Ayla Jean Potter

We are so excited to have you in our family Ayla. So incredibly excited!

Download links ( 720p – 1080p )

Shanghai Typhoon

2012-08-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Awoke to a typhoon on Wednesday.

Download links ( 720p – 1080p )

Fortunately we didn’t experience much damage or flooding. However 350,000, people were still evacuated. Super high winds and very heavy rains hammered us all day. All is well now but what an interesting experience!

Tossed some water-proof cameras on the patio to try to capture the storm, though the video doesn’t do much justice to it’s scope.

Dinner in Shanghai

2012-06-23T18:28:00.001-07:00

We had dinner at a pretty swank sushi restaurant, this week, called Shintori. The food was pretty good, but not stellar. The décor, however, was pretty awesome. Tucked away, nondescript entrance, Shintori is pretty hard to find. Once you enter, you find yourself walking down a bamboo lined walkway to the main entrance.

The main dining room is huge and sits below an open kitchen. There are also private tables and rooms on the second level. From there you can look down, into the kitchen, to see you food being prepared.

After dinner we walked to a wine bar called Dr. Wine. They also have a sister bar/brewery called Dr. Beer.

A new adventure awaits… – Pictures/Video

2012-06-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

You may or may not have noticed but I’ve changed the title of our blog. What was once named “Dagan and Bree | Our experience in India” is now “Dagan and Bree | Our world adventure” The reason? We have, as of last week, relocated to Shanghai, China. Quite the contrast from Bangalore… In fact, at opposite ends of the spectrum in many regards.

It’s been quite a while since my last post and lots has happened since then! Lets see… lots of traveling… got married… have a kid on the way… changed jobs and relocated… guess a lot can happen in a year!

Over the course of the next few months, I’ll be posting a lot of the backlog (photos/videos/etc.)

For now, however, the update is… We’re located in a district of Shanghai called Pudong. Pudong is the most modern section of Shanghai, comprised of many of the newest sky scrapers and shopping centers.

We live on the 28th floor of a building, beside the Grand Hyatt (the really tall building that looks like a bottle opener).

A video of our view that I took the first night we arrived.

720p – 1080p

For the next few months, I will be commuting to Nanjing via bullet train (super fast @ ~350kmh/220mph). Even though the commute takes a bit, it gives me time to do things like write this blog, edit videos, and work, of course.

Here are a collection of random photos I’ve taken since arriving…

Mmmm, my breakfast as I forgot to eat before my first ride into work…

Homemade escargot… just like mom used to make (purchased from our *amazing* local expat supermarket).

I found gadget town! Pacific Digital, Metro Mart, BuyNow, etc. I love this place. You can find anything! I’ve already established a gadget broker that will deliver to my home. Sorry, bank account!

We found sushi! Actually, it’s all over Shanghai but this place was great.

Walking home. The building on the right will be the 2nd tallest building in the world when completed in 2014.

And now I know where to go to get legit Apple goods. The underground store is fantastically enormous.

More to come…

Mumbai Laundry – Pictures

2011-09-18T20:39:00.001-07:00

We were in Mumbai this weekend (some business and some recreation). I ran across the Mumbai open-air laundry, called Dhobi Ghat.

Dhobi Ghat, called the world's largest outdoor laundry, is a well known open air Laundromat in Mumbai, India. The washers, locally known as Dhobis, work in the open to wash the clothes from Mumbai's hotels and hospitals. There are rows of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone.

Click the image to see a much higher resolution version (search for the Dhobis).

Paris – Video

2011-09-01T04:19:00.001-07:00

Wow… after a long hiatus, I’m back to blogging. Work has kept me very busy for the last few months so I have an enormous backlog of photos/videos to go over. Here’s one that I left off some time ago.

Bree and I were visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Edinburgh when we decided to go to Paris, for a few days. Here is a short video of some of the things we came across.

High resolution download (720p - 1280x720)

Progressive Dinner – Video

2011-05-05T20:41:00.001-07:00

This weekend we had a progressive dinner party.

High resolution download (720p - 1280x720)

Paris – Day 1 – Pictures

2010-10-02T18:58:00.001-07:00

Change in plans... We had originally planned on taking a train from Edinburgh to York, and then after a day in York, taking it the rest of the way to London. Sorry, London. You're cool and everything but Paris seems more fun right now. Off to Paris!

After landing at Charles de Gaulle we took the Metro into the city. The information booth was kind enough to give us the wrong metro stop (approx 2km/1.2miles). Good times. So after a nice walk through the red light district, carrying ~40lbs of camera gear and 50lbs of other stuff, we were at our hotel! It was late afternoon by this point so after freshening up, it was time for some dinner.

Dinner time

Dagan's Meal	Bree's Meal
Escargot	Foie Gras

Steak Tartare	Chicken in Cream Sauce

Camembert & Salad	French Toast & Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Great bottle of Bordeaux

It's official. The food in Paris is awesome. Not only are the restaurants excellent, but there seems to be an unending supply of them. Trying to decide on a café is virtually impossible. A quick google maps "café" search reveals a staggering number of options.

After steak sushi, we decided to walk around and explore our particular enclave of Paris. Turns out it's full of... cafes. The night life is pretty healthy for a Monday evening. So we decide to stop for a beer and people watch.

Ready for some exploring

The view from our beer stop cafe

(Slideshow)

Edinburgh – Day 1 – Pictures

2010-09-22T11:31:00.001-07:00

Day one in Edinburgh, Scotland! We are here visiting Dylan, Jacqueline, and Sebastian (for those that don’t know… my brother and his family).

First up was a walk from our hotel to their house. On the way, we spot Edinburgh Castle.

My nephew, Sebastian. Bree (aka The Wife). Dylan (not really)

Then off to a local church to see some really impressive architecture. i

Riiiight….

Slideshow

Paris – Preview 3

2010-09-18T02:41:00.001-07:00

This is the last Paris preview… We’ll be on a 15hr flight tomorrow, so plenty of time for me to start sorting through photos and have a blog post ready when we land. So, until then…

Ceiling in the Louvre

Paris – Preview 2

2010-09-16T01:36:00.001-07:00

Once we get back to India, I will sort through the many photos I’ve taken. In the meantime…

Paris – Preview

2010-09-14T01:35:00.001-07:00

Stopped for a nice dinner and some wine last night…

Panic at the disco – Pictures

2010-09-12T02:57:00.001-07:00

After a long day of walking around Edinburgh we were exhausted. Bree crashed early, though I was soon to follow. Then around 3-4am we were arroused by blaring alarms/sirens… FIRE ALARM

Turns out that it was a false alarm and all is well. So tired…

Edinburgh Scotland – Pictures

2010-09-11T15:41:00.001-07:00

Made it to Edinburgh, Scotland yesterday. We’re visiting Dylan, Jacqueline, and Sebastian (my brother, his wife, and their son). More pics to follow!

Commercial Street – Pictures

2010-09-09T01:54:00.001-07:00

This weekend we decided to head to Commercial Street to pick up some gifts. Commercial street is packed with vendors, selling just about anything you can imagine. The sheer number of people packed into the small roads is quite impressive. Of course, I brought my camera along to document the trip. I also shot a lot of video, which I will post shortly.

Hungry?

Random sightings…

Time to get out of Dodge.

Magic Beans – Pictures

2010-09-03T23:12:00.001-07:00

So I learned something this morning... If you're going to grind coffee beans (that were purchased in Thailand no less) with a blender, make sure to hold the lid shut. Guess that's another excuse to go back to Thailand.

Super Market – Pictures

2010-08-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

These are a few pictures I took at the Varthur Village street market. A great/cheap place to buy produce and other household goods.

Super Market – Video

2010-08-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

This weekend we hit the local market for some much needed produce. We have a new guest in India and you can see Matt at the end of the video.

High resolution download (720p - 1280x720)

How many miles!? – Pictures

2010-08-26T08:06:00.001-07:00

Just crossed the 1000km mark this weekend! That’s about 650-ish miles of driving through Indian villages, fields, and other unmarked areas. Can’t wait to log the next 1000!

Memories…

Koh Samui – Thailand – Video

2010-08-21T20:44:00.001-07:00

This is a small video of our trip to Thailand. It supplements this blog post.

High resolution download (720p – 1280x720)

Scooter Ride – Pictures

2010-08-16T11:11:00.001-07:00

Our last ride was a quick one. Quick but fun. I was able to take a few snapshots along the way.

Another outing – Video

2010-08-10T22:14:00.001-07:00

Another weekend, another drive…

High resolution download (720p – 1280x720)

We took a much longer scooter ride than usual this time. 20 miles (32km). That doesn’t seem very far but when you’re driving through fields/jungle/etc, it adds up. We brought baseball gloves, which Erik got on his recent trip to the states. Chad supplied the football and we all chipped in on the beverages.

View Scooter Rides in a larger map

Koh Samui – Thailand – Pictures

2010-08-06T04:36:00.001-07:00

This past weekend a group of us decided to head to Thailand for some R&R. Home base was a small island called Koh Samui. We’ve been there many times; enough that I’ve had three hair cuts on the island (interesting metric).

After a redeye flight we were off to the hotel.
Fun with non-acclimated lenses.

Time to check into our bungalow.

After checking in, it was time for some caffeine. We dropped off our bags, rented scooters, and hit the road. Living in India makes you appreciate many of the little things in life… like good coffee. Luckily there’s a Starbucks just down the road from our hotel. I know, I know… Starbucks isn’t good coffee. Well, try living on Indian coffee for a couple years and see if you still have the same opinion :)

Fun Facts

	Population	Number of Starbucks
Koh Samui	48,000	3
Thailand	68,000,000	132
USA	307,000,000	11,068
India	1,200,000,000	0

So tired. must. get. coffee. Ooo, free drink… with jelly :/

Ok then. Breakfast it is.

We tried to get this guy, on the mobile hotdog stand, to follow us around the island on our scooter rides… He did not.

We drove around a bit and found a couple sights.

Time to go back To the hotel and get some sleep.

The next day drove around the island to explore. We found lookouts, temples, restaurants, and lots of amazing sights.

Very High-Resolution Panorama

On one of our restaurant stops, we found our snorkeling guide. With a small deposit we had plans for the next day.

We then took the scooters to the southern tip of Samui to go snorkeling. After the captain loaded the boat, with snorkeling gear and beer, we were ready to go. We drove for about 20-30 minutes to an even smaller island called Koh Taen. It is surrounded by coral reefs and is a great place to check out the sea life. I would show underwater pictures, but my underwater camera turned out to be less than waterproof.

A picture of the beach we departed from.

Which boat, you ask? Second from the left. And yes, that is a V8 strapped to the back.

Very High-Resolution Panorama

Super cool trip. It was then time for some lunch.

The mini pancakes were pretty good, though I didn’t even attempt the fish.

Map of our scooter ride. That bit at the bottom of the map is where we went snorkeling.
If you click the Sat button on the map you will see the islands.

View Koh Samui in a larger map

Time to head back to India. I’ll post some video shortly.

Scooter Ride – Video

2010-07-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Dagan gets a 60fps camera...

High resolution download (720p – 1280x720)

Bree’s back in India so we decided to take a scooter ride this weekend. Actually, we take scooter rides most weekends. That said, this one was taken with a new 60fps camera and a GPS to map our our rides. Sweet.

View Scooter Rides in a larger map