Huachuca. Sounds kind of like: Waa-Choo-ka. You’re welcome. I have been hiking & backpacking lately in southern Arizona on the Arizona National Scenic Trail. I do it as a form of therapy and enforced quietude. It’s often so silent, so beautiful, and so rugged, that I get swept up in emotion unexpectedly. Here are some… Continue reading Hiking in the huachucas
Category: Photography
Sunset musings
I’m here in Berkeley, California to get my Master of Divinity degree. A sweet irony for me is that I don’t have to be enrolled in any school to find divinity. It’s on stark display daily in this beautiful place. Tonight as I walked west from campus toward home, I was watching this spectacular sunset… Continue reading Sunset musings
You go rest. I’ll wait here for you.
Sometimes I want someone to do this for me. Goodnight beautiful Sun. Rest. Your body must ache from all that work. Day after day you burn, always shining, never asking anything from me. Day after day, you show up Day after day, you move Day after day, you lie down knowing Tomorrow must come and so you Cheerfully… Continue reading You go rest. I’ll wait here for you.
Photography: Walk with me through a labyrinth
These photos are from a recent trip I took to an amazing conference. Rethinking Everything is equal parts Burning Man, SXSW, and TED – with the central theme being children (specifically, most attendees are Unschooling families). Weird enough for you? It was freaking AWESOME. Click on the photos to enjoy them full size. Anyway, enjoy…… Continue reading Photography: Walk with me through a labyrinth
Hanoi
What I remember most about Hanoi was the green. It’s a busy city, but not busy like Saigon. Even in the most dense neighborhoods, there was always a park or a tree-lined boulevard. This city is full of interesting sights, sounds, and smells like the rest of the country, but Hanoi is somehow more personal,… Continue reading Hanoi
Angkor Wat
We planned our travels around mostly local culture, flavor, and minor or less-well known sites. Angkor Wat is an exception. I couldn’t rightfully travel through Cambodia with 2 young kids and not take in this historic site. I’m glad I didn’t miss it. Located about 2 miles north of the city where we were staying, Angkor Wat is… Continue reading Angkor Wat
From Malaysia to Vietnam
It’s been a bit since I posted. Turns out that travel is a couple of things that I forgot: Hard Work Fascinating. In fact, I’ve been so busy immersing myself in all the richness and wonder that is Southeast Asia that I’ve done very little in the way of writing about it. It’s now the end of… Continue reading From Malaysia to Vietnam
Visual Impressions from Kuala Lumpur
The hypocrisy of water
I took a shower this morning in the hotel in Kuala Lumpur. A pretty long one with lots of steam and sudsy bubbles everywhere. If you read my post over on BlueSkyAcademy, you know that we started off in a rented local apartment this week. It had a more typical setup for plumbing. The government… Continue reading The hypocrisy of water
I completely lost track of time and space on the way here. Cincinnati to LA, LA to Shanghai, Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur.
On the airline website it looked simple enough. A couple of transfers, some airplane food, a bus ride to central KL, and we’d be there.
In reality, 4 dusty, tired, and disoriented travelers stumbled up to meet the owner of the apartment we found on Airbnb.
By American standards, the apartment is very basic. It’s clean, and has wifi, hot water, AC, and cable television. Sounds just fine – and it is – but I think most Americans would turn around when they saw it. Located on a hodgepodge street full of luxury hotels and businesses, I’d bet the building this apartment is in has been here longer than nearly all its neighbors. It’s the kind of concrete block apartment building you see in Jackie Chan movies… jammed with lots of little (~500 square feet for the biggest) apartments. This one has a main area, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom. It’s basic, but functional. You can hear lots of very detailed sounds coming from the neighbors all around you – but you aren’t really able to directionally locate them. Very much “big city” sounds. Rarely have I been in this close proximity to this many people.
Our choice to relocate from the suburbs of Cincinnati Ohio to downtown Cincinnati seems a good one in retrospect. Though Cincinnati isn’t nearly as dense as KL, the family is accustomed to the sights and sounds of urban life. Here it is just turned up in intensity.
We arrived at ~7am local time after 30 hours of travel. It was daylight when we left Ohio, and it was still daylight when we landed in Shanghai…. only getting dark when we landed in KL (roughly 2am local time). We basically flew west with the sun, so it never set.
Once we got to the apartment, the 2 hour nap we had planned to rejuvenate ourselves turned into 9 hours of dead-to-the-world. We roused ourselves around 4pm to get ready to go find food & a travel adapter only to catch the rain as it started. It’s now 8pm and the rain hasn’t stopped yet. Subsisting on a big bag of homemade trail mix Meredith made (good call, by the way), we’ve given up on today.
I’m good. I’m clean, freshly shaved, and scrounged a cup of coffee. I’m just starting a journey I’ve dreamed about for years, and I’m on it with people I love. Oh, and the delicious smell of garlic cooking is coming from somewhere nearby now.
Hopefully the morning brings some sun.
Tomorrow we try again.
p.s. pictures soon – when I can find an internet connection fast enough.