Ephemerratic

Elephant skin - Art by Todd Berman from Thailand

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:26:06 -0700

Last night's travel art show at cellSpace was a blast. It was interesting to see people's reactions to art created on such a long trip, and also to hear their enthusiasm about travel.

Lauren and I also finally got to meet Edward Hasbrouck, author of my favorite book that I read to prepare for our round-the world trip, The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World. He stopped by the show and he and Lauren chatted for hours while I talked with people who came to see the art.

Though they were up on the wall last night, it's time for the drawings I made in Thailand to make their virtual appearance. From a distance, elephants just look gray. As you get closer though, you can see the complexity and texture of their skin. I used layers of white paint and many colors in this drawing of an elephant during feeding time at Elephant Nature Park.

Hungry Elephant
$30, marker on paper, 6" x 4"

(Keep reading at www.ephemerratic.com to check out more art from Thailand.)

Travel art show this Thursday – Drawings on sale

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:41:37 -0700

Todd's art don't stop anywhere, even when traveling around the world. He drew constantly as we moved, sketching pandas, temples, Buddhas, rivers, sunsets, elephants, skulls, landscapes, people, famous ruins, tuk tuks, musicians, and the occasional leg of jamón.

The travel drawings will be on shown (live, as opposed to online) for the first time this Thursday, November 5, at 7:00pm at Spacecraft, the monthly group show at CELLspace in San Francisco. Click for more info, address, and to shout out that you're coming.

The show also includes creations by CELLspace studio artists, DJ beats, live performers, wine and cheese (it is an art show) and the unexpected. We hope to see you there!

This week only, the drawings are discounted, but only until the show is over. Art that's normally $15 is on sale for $10; drawings normally $65 can be yours for $40 (shipping not included).

First, click here to check out the travel art.Then, just email Todd at

with the title(s) of what you want and your mailing address. He'll reply with payment instructions. First come, first served. Remember, shipping is not included, but instead of delivery, you could also pick it up at CELLspace on Thursday.

A strict diet of Buddhas and blood - Sukhothai and Ayuthaya, Thailand

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:22:56 -0700

Hi – More change is afoot! This week, we're breaking up the travel stories and photos from the travel tips. In a couple of days, we'll post the tips from the same places. We'd love to know what you think of this change in a comment (in the mighty battle against spam, all comments are held for moderation, so yours won't go up right away). Thanks!

Buddha in a field of columns | Photo by Lauren Girardin

I was curious about the literal translation of tom yum goong, which I understood simply as Thai spicy prawn soup based on what was in my bowl. Goong was easy: "prawn," which our friend Crissy, the marine biologist, and other authorities will tell you to avoid eating in Asia, because of industry-related environmental horrors. Tom, was a little harder to unearth, but near enough means "boiled" or "soup." So far, my understanding seems spot on.

Yum, however, proved more mysterious, defying a succinct one-word-for-another translation into English when soup is concerned. The most tantalizing meaning of yum is the balanced mix of the four Thai flavors - sweet, salty, sour, and spicy.

Yum, a balancing act. How many of my travel experiences can be metaphored by this bowl of soup? Even my eating of the soup is itself an example of a balancing act. Because of eco-guilt, I don't normally eat prawns, but over such a long time in Asia, one inevitably, occasionally fails miserably at ethical commitments, especially involving food. My behavior (and misbehavior) is a balance of desire, logic, willpower, and circumstance.

Is looking for meaning in a bowl of soup a clue that I've been traveling too long? Next thing you know I'll compose haiku about the symbolic beauty of rice, or to be even more travel blog cliché about it, I'll write a post titled, "The Top Ten Asian Food Metaphors."

Soup aside, the southbound road awaits.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to keep reading the story)

The awkward love child of old and new – Chiang Mai, Thailand

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:48:25 -0700

Hi – We're trying something new in this post – larger images! We'd love to hear what you think of this change so drop us a comment (in the mighty battle against spam, all comments are held for moderation, so yours won't go up right away). Of course, you can still check out all our Chiang Mai photos in our slide show. And now the story...

Webbigail's a Buddha groupie | Photo by Lauren Girardin

There is an overriding theme to our week in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Usually you'll hear platitudes like beautiful, historic, cultural, or fascinating used to describe this Thai metropolis. Chiang Mai is all of those things. Like any major city, at times it's also touristy, skeezy, and polluted. But, but most of all, Chiang Mai is just plain weird.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to keep reading about Chiang Mai and check out all our photos)

Where the wild things limp – Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:05:57 -0700

Under the watchful eye of an elephant | Photo by Lauren Girardin

It's near impossible to visit Chiang Mai, Thailand and not spend every day checking something off the traveler's list of must-dos. It seems as lazy and cliché as a Snuggie to keep doing what everyone else does – whether it's catching a muay thai match or taking a cooking class – but it's all been so much fun. There's a reason these are well-trod tourist paths. Todd and I are content to be part of the herd.

Before leaving on this round-the-world trip, most friend's tips for Thailand included that we go on an elephant trek. My do-gooder super-ego immediately started grumbling like Marge Simpson, leery of an animal-dependent tourist attraction that's not a preserve or national park.

So I picked up the Fate of the Elephant by Douglas Chadwick. Though a bit old, published in 1994, it's an extraordinary book filled with cautionary tales about ivory trade, poaching, logging servitude, and the no-one-wins conflict between struggling farmers and the ravenous, habitat-deprived elephants that destroy crops. Chadwick rarely preaches, letting his stories and research speak for themselves. Reading Fate of the Elephant convinced me that there had to be something more responsible than a trek for my Thai elephant encounter.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to keep reading about Elephant Nature Park and check out photos)

Be not afraid of fermented fish - Chiang Mai, Thailand

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:59:00 -0700

Pad thai ingredients | Photo by Lauren Girardin

In 2005, Todd's brother Joshua and our freshly minted sister-in-law Sutay spent over a year on an extended multi-continental honeymoon. When they settled into Chiang Mai, Thailand for a month of tranquilo writing and intense massage schooling, it was a perfect time for a visit from Joshua's mom, Beth.

Todd and I have been together a long time – and friends even longer. So, even though I'm just 33, I've known Todd's family for more than 20 years. They're old friends. It's comforting to know that, though it's been many months since we've seen anyone we know from L.B.T. (Life Before Travel), now that we're in Chiang Mai, every so often our steps fall exactly where Joshua, Sutay, or Beth's did less than four years ago.

Like most travelers that pass through Chiang Mai, Joshua and Beth chopped and pounded away a day in a cooking class and recommended the experience. I've taken a cooking class here and there on this trip and never regretted it – the market tour helps me identify mysterious street food, and since you usually make more than one meal's worth of dishes, it's a kind-to-the-budget activity. Chiang Mai also seems to have as many cooking classes as pimped out golden Buddhas. How could I not follow in Beth and Joshua's footsteps?

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to keep reading about cooking school in Chiang Mai)

Gold foil and temple guardians - Art by Todd Berman from Chiang Mai, Thailand

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:41:48 -0700

View of Wat Phra Singh, chiang Mai, Thailand
SOLD, mixed media on paper, 8" x 10"

At first, Raja wanted to commission a drawing of rusting war artillery in Vietnam, but his wife Sarah convinced him that a drawing of temples in Chiang Mai, Thailand would look better in their house.

While Lauren went to a cooking class one day, I sat outside Wat Phra Singh with my sketchbook. I started with water color, then added more details with pencils and markers. It was a sunny day and the sun gleamed off the tops of the Wat's spires, so I incorporated gold foil from a Beer Chang bottle into the picture.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to read the rest of this post and comment.

Before I kick your ass, may we dance? - Chiang Mai, Thailand

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:37:27 -0700

Teen Muay Thai fighter | Photo by Lauren Girardin

Todd and I leave the calm, historic back alleys of old Chiang Mai and head through the ancient city walls and over the moat to a part of the city where the vibe ramps up a notch. Loi Kroh Road is a nightlife zone teeming with people busily indulging their vices, exuding the same desperate nonchalance as high school kids sneaking a smoke between classes.

What you want, Chiang Mai's got, whether it's mini-skirted, fake-boobed, pool-hustling hookers; the lulling kneading of a three dollar foot massage; a new wardrobe of cheap designer knock offs; a gluttonous street cart meal of guoy jub, pad see ew, and papaya salad; or the sad familiarity of a Big Mac.

Right now, we're in the mood for violence.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to keep reading about the Muay Thai match)

And Kala devours it all – Commissioned art by Todd from Bangkok, Thailand

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:37:05 -0700

And Kala Devours it All, Bangkok, Thailand
SOLD, mixed media on paper, 8" x 10"

When my friend Travis commissioned a drawing of Bangkok, Thailand, he gave me an interesting assignment:

"What I remember best about traveling is observing the commotion of these places packed with other people going about their lives, but somehow feeling apart from it all, taking it in but not having to abide by the same daily routines or the shackles of time and place."

"I like the idea of the anonymous throngs of people in habitual motions against the backdrop of places, sights or scenes that a traveler or visitor would consider less ordinary."

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to read the rest of this post and comment.

Missionaries, mercenaries and misfits – Bangkok, Thailand

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:19:13 -0700

Immense brass Buddha-ish head | Photo by Lauren Girardin

For most people, Bangkok is their first encounter with Southeast Asia. The months-ago closing of Thailand's southern Pattaya airport due to political protests made Todd and I wary of banking on Bangkok as our way out of India. When Bangkok's airport was barricaded, and all transportation in Thailand was bogged down soon after we landed in our alternative port, Saigon, Vietnam, we felt like the smartest travelers this side of the Tropic of Capricorn.

So, instead of flying into Thailand, we're on a thirteen-hour tin can mini-van ride from Cambodia. We don't feel so much smart as dehydrated.

Crossing the Cambodia-Thailand border is a scene change as extreme as rounding a corner between San Francisco's Tenderloin district and Union Square, a move that takes you from hop scotching around the Tenderloin's bruise-dotted meth heads, and piles and puddles of unmentionables, into Union Square's waves of tourists freezing in ill-advised shorts, and mammoth chain stores and restaurants.

It turns out that we have a bit of the Tenderloin with us on our border crossing. And unfortunately, that bit is driving our mini-van.

(Email and RSS readers, visit www.ephemerratic.com to read on, get travel tips, and check out photos)