Helen & Joel’s engagement pictures in DC
Helen and Joel really couldn’t have picked a more stunning fall day than today for their engagement pictures. What a fun and beautiful afternoon we had walking around Meridian Hill Park, the National Mall and the Tidal Basin for pictures. Oh, how I love living in DC with all its wonderful places to photograph.
National Aquarium in Baltimore
The last time I visited the National Aquarium, Bill Clinton had just become president and Nirvana was near the height of its popularity. Much has changed since then. The aquarium is bigger. I’m now a photographer. Which means there was lots for me and Patrick to see and photograph. I don’t remember the animals being so interesting or the lighting being so beautiful. Then to think that all these plants and animals are somewhere out there in the sea – well, it makes me want to learn to scuba dive so I can see them all in their natural habitats.
A night on Lake Titicaca
When you first see the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, it’s amazing to think that these islands and the homes on them and the boats next to them are all constructed from the tall totora (reeds) growing everywhere in the water. But it’s true. And it’s been true for hundreds of years. The islands slowly sink, so the people living there constantly lay down new reeds to build up the “ground”.
It’s been almost one year since I traveled to Lake Titicaca but I must say sleeping overnight on one of the islands is a must. Just make sure your visit is sustainable. I stayed on Isla Khantati with Cristina Suaña (the link is in Spanish and about 10 years old) and her husband Victor. They’re both Lake Titicaca natives. Cristina is listed in Lonely Planet as “highly recommended by readers.” I recommend her, too. She was incredibly welcoming, smiling all the time and adjusting her dinner menu to accommodate the fact that I’m vegetarian. That was so very kind of her.
Cristina lost no opportunity to educate me and the other tourists about her culture and her life. Especially interesting was how she got started hosting foreigners in her home: Cristina had seen tour operators taking advantage of the Lake Titicaca islanders. She didn’t like it. So she talked with her husband about starting their own operation. It would cater to foreigners but be more of a cultural exchange than a typical tourist visit to the islands. Cristina attended culinary classes so she could learn how to cook for western palates. A volunteer created a brochure. Slowly, tourists started calling her. Then she got written up in Lonely Planet a few years ago and business boomed.
There were four of us tourists all together. Two men and one woman from Portugal and one man from Germany. The Portuguese people spoke Spanish but not the German man. I had to translate from Spanish to English for him. We all sat huddled in a hut around a reed table, sharing travel stories as we waited for dinner. Periodically Victor or Cristina would appear to talk with us. That night and during a fishing expedition the next morning we all learned so much about the history of the area and the struggles the islanders have faced balancing tourism with maintaining their cultural roots. I stretched my Spanish to its limits during these talks.
I just looked in my journal to find the exact facts I learned during my 24 hours on Isla Khantati. All it says is:
I’m about to go to bed on a floating island. It’s been an amazing day. I’ve learned so much. It’ll have to wait until later, though, because I’m exhausted. I could feel the island moving when I was in the bathroom.
Then I never wrote about Lake Titicaca again. Let that be a lesson to me to stay up late and just write. Well then. I did learn a lot. I remember feeling overwhelmed by all the facts given to me by Cristina and Victor. Maybe that was why I went to bed instead of wrote.
I don’t want to write wrong facts, so I’ll write about feelings instead, like the feeling of being on a floating island. When you’re standing or sitting still you can sometimes feel the island gently bobbing in the water. I remember standing in the toilet stall (like a luxury port-a-potty) and feeling the ground undulate. I carefully stepped out of the stall and into complete darkness except for the stars twinkling above. I felt the bobbing again. So lovely and wonderful.
Be prepared to be cold when you visit Lake Titicaca, especially if you stay overnight, especially in winter. I froze during the night even though my sleeping attire consisted of pants, long johns, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweater, a scarf, a wool hat, my knee-length down coat, eight wool blankets and a hot water bottle at my feet (provided by Cristina and Victor for all the guests). The blankets were so heavy that I couldn’t move. I decided it was better to be cold than to smother to death, so I kicked off a few blankets.
The next morning all us tourists set out to go fishing with Victor. He caught lots of little fish whose name I can’t remember. Cristina had a western breakfast ready by the time we returned. After breakfast came a surprise: Cristina wanted us all to sing and write down the words to a song from our home country. First went the Portuguese people. Then the German man. Everyone wanted to hear a Korean song from me, not an American song, so I sang a kids tune called 나비야 (Butterfly) and – surprisingly – everyone hummed along. Even Cristina hummed! Turns out the song’s melody is one that’s used in a lot of countries. And to think I had to travel all the way to Peru and spend a night and morning on Isla Khantati in Lake Titicaca to learn that. Life is amazing.
A Buckroe Beach morning
If I had to choose between living in the mountains or by the beach, I would choose the beach. Who can live without hearing the crashing of waves? Or seeing the never-ending view of the ocean stretching out to the sky? The scent of salt and the sound of water lapping up on shore never cease to calm and comfort me.
Around Jinja, Uganda, at sunset
So the interesting thing about Jinja, Uganda, is the strong Indian influence on the city’s architecture and atmosphere. Until Idi Amin expelled all Asians from the country in 1972, Indians owned many businesses that made up the backbone of the Ugandan economy. Now, walking around Jinja, you see Hindu temples and men wearing turbans (you can see both in the photograph above). Indians began returning to Uganda in the 1980s, including the Madhavani family, which owns one of the largest business groups in Uganda. In fact, Patrick and I stayed at a beautiful safari Lodge that the Madhavani’s own in western Uganda – but more about that later.
Back to Jinja.
It is really a picturesque city, kind of quaint, actually, even though it’s nestled along Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile River. Patrick lives just outside Jinja, but we didn’t spend much time there and I didn’t take nearly as many pictures there as I imagined. I also didn’t go rafting – which is what most people do in Jinja – or visit the Source of the Nile Gardens (which Patrick said is kind of a rip off considering you can see the source of the river from other places). All in all, I wish we’d spent more time just chilling in Jinja. Next time!
Kitchen in Tan Ky House, Hoi An, Vietnam
I’m not sure if we were really supposed to wander around the kitchen, but we did. The Tan Ky House is over 200 years old and still home to members of the Tan family. The architecture was an interesting mix of Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese – reflecting Hoi An’s days as a major Asian seaport – but what interested me most was the colorful kitchen and the pot boiling on the stove, simple reminders of every day life still going on in the old home.
Hanoi, Vietnam, by motorbike taxi
All photographs shot from the back of a moving motorbike taxi during a 20-minute ride with my Canon G11. I didn’t crop any of these!
Elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park
And suddenly there they were, a herd of elephants crossing the dirt road at sunrise. Two started play fighting with each other, which made for some very nice pictures. I’ve been back from Uganda & Rwanda for almost one month but haven’t edited through all my photographs yet, so stay tuned…
I Street Bike Social makes DC that much more fun
When I ride my bike around DC alone, no one claps for me. No one cheers. No one dances. Because that would be weird, right?
Well, things are a little different when you’re one of about two dozen riders in the I Street Bike Social. People on the sidewalk clap. And they cheer. And yes, they dance. Certainly, it helps that the ride leader has a stereo system hooked up to his bike. It’s surreal to be pedaling down K Street at night, all lit up by semi-empty lobbying offices, while “Stayin’ Alive” booms from in front of you and cyclists surround you.
It’s also so freakin’ cool. I think we must’ve looked like a small parade that lost its way.
Most people seemed to be new to tonight’s bike social. There were several riders like myself who came alone. There were also some random bicyclists we picked up along the way, which added an air of whimsy to the ride. See in the picture above the two guys riding away from the rest of us? They were heading somewhere else and decided to join the fun. Cheers all around, as I recall.
Jordan, our ride leader, started this bike social for his employer BicycleSPACE after seeing a similar bike ride in Boulder, Colo. Here in DC, we started out at the BicycleSPACE office at 4th and Eye St. NW at 8 p.m. – close to sunset – and then wound our way through H Street, Capitol Hill, the National Mall, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown. A light breeze blew and the temperature was just right as we coasted around. DC is beautiful at night. We had some mishaps with the contraption carrying the stereo but Jordan played some good tunes: Adele, Rhianna, Outkast. I tried boogeying on my bike but that’s actually kind of hard if you don’t want to crash. Which made me realize I had never listened to music while riding my bike.
As I mentioned before, other people seemed surprised and really pleased to see us. We weren’t doing anything special, but somehow, being part of the group made us all look special. By the time we took a break by the Potomac River, the sky was dark and I gratefully drank from my water bottle. After about 20 minutes, we headed up K Street. I broke off at 11th St. to go home. Two hours of leisurely biking was enough for me.
For all the fun I had, I think the name “bike social” is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not like all us bicyclists were talking and laughing and socializing all the time. I did chat with a cool woman who just moved here from Wisconsin three weeks ago. I also talked with a nice gal wearing a bike helmet that looked like a houndstooth ball cap. But for the most part, those conversations and the whole night gave me more of a sense of community. People seemed to simply enjoy being a part of this small band of bikers, taking over one or two street lanes at a time – even in Georgetown. Which is kind of crazy if you’ve ever been in Georgetown.
Can’t wait for next week!
The Kindle goes to Vietnam
Chinese All-Community Assembly Hall
Lonely Planet can rest easy: The Kindle can’t replace it – for now. An e-reader like the Kindle is great if you only read in a linear way, i.e., page one, then page two, three, etc. But when you’re reading a Lonely Planet book, which requires you to reference other pages, it really is annoying. You have to hit the back button over and over and over. Also, the Lonely Planet maps are teeny on the Kindle. Several times I tried enlarging the maps with my fingers a la the iPhone, completely forgetting the Kindle screen isn’t a touchscreen. Somehow, that made the Kindle seem a little antiquated.
Not everything was bad about reading Lonely Planet on the Kindle. It was great to be able to whip out this small, light “book” wherever we were and read up on the area’s history or great restaurants. I just think the Kindle experience would be even better with a touchscreen. Amazon, you hear me?
Tran Family Chapel
Tran Family Chapel
My Son
My Son
My Son, Vietnam
My Son, a group of crumbling Hindu temples built by the Cham people between the 4th and 14th centuries, is often compared to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. But from what I’ve read, My Son is smaller and has fewer intact buildings. The ones that are left are made of brick with intricate patterns and imagery carved right into the brick. The biggest My Son mystery is how the bricks are stuck together. Some organic glue? Some mineral substance? No one knows for sure.
There’s one group of My Son buildings that was almost completely obliterated by U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War. A French museum curator of Cham culture was so upset that he wrote to U.S. President Nixon asking him to stop the bombing, according to Lonely Planet. Below you can see my picture (third from the bottom) of the bombed monuments.
Johanna was quite fascinated by all the lingams and yonis, especially the ones that had cracked apart, thus the last photograph.
An early morning run around Hoan Kiem Lake
The usual swarm of people riding motorbikes around Hanoi was replaced by a swarm of people exercising on the shores of Hoan Kiem Lake this morning. This is a daily Hanoi occurence, according to Lonely Planet, and it really is a sight to see. Indeed, this morning there were tourists milling about, taking pictures of the exercisers!
I left my hotel at 6:30 a.m, ran down the street leading to Hoan Kiem and saw hundreds of people walking, stretching and sometimes running in a counter-clockwise direction around the lake. It’s that counter-clockwise direction that surprised me the most at first. Until I ran out there, I hadn’t realized I expected to run clockwise. Those Communists, they have to do everything differently. Hehehe. Better to go with the flow than get run over.
Any exercise you can imagine people might do around a lake, people were doing it. Most people walked while chatting with friends or family. About a half dozen men ran (no female runners except me). Most people wore loose clothing but there were a few groups of young girls wearing tight tank tops and shorts. There were old people in pajamas pushing their wheelchairs. Several groups of about 25 women performed synchronized calisthenics to music, including the Muzak version of Que Sera. Barechested old men swung their arms to and fro while walking at a brisk pace. Lots of people stood around moving their hips in circles, like they were hula hooping without the hoop. There were about 10 women dancing while balancing plastic balls on small tennis rackets. Several couples waltzed to classical music blaring from a portable speaker. I saw one older man stretched out on a yoga mat and one woman walking backwards. There was even one enterprising lady sitting with a small scale, so you could check your progress after your morning constitution.
By 7 a.m. the fun was pretty much over. The exercising ranks had thinned to almost nothing and the motorcycle traffic had picked up considerably. I wish I were around for another morning of running and people watching around Hoan Kiem!
Hoi An Beach
Johanna made the interesting observation that Vietnam and Mexico have a lot in common: good food, interesting historical sites and beautiful beaches. I agree. She and I biked to Hoi An Beach and spent a relaxing morning reading under umbrellas and swimming in the clear South China Sea. I could have spent all day there! I wanted to get a workout (as if bicycling all over town in 100-degree heat wasn’t exercise enough) so I actually swam some laps. It was even harder than I thought it would be what with the waves pushing me around and forcing water up my nose when I came up for air. Guess I won’t be winning any ocean swim races any time soon.
Day trip to Cham Island
Things I thought about while swimming, snorkeling and lounging around Cham Island:
1) I’ve never seen such brilliantly blue starfish. It looks like some kid spread blue Play Doh in the shapes of stars all over these rocks.
2) The water is so clear!
3) I didn’t know there were so many pastel-colored coral.
4) Did someone drop a big blue soccer ball into the South China Sea? What? It’s a sea anemone? No way!
5) Why don’t I know more about the underwater ecosystem?
6) Oh my goodness, schools of silver fish seem to be swimming circles around me. So cool.
7) This was totally worth the $40 I paid to Cham Island Diving.
Hoi An, I love you
The Tran Family Chapel was built for worshipping family ancestors. The architecture is a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.
Johanna and I have been biking, walking and sweating our way around Hoi An, a small city on Vietnam’s central coast. Despite being quite close to the Vietnam DMZ, Hoi An escaped unscathed from the Vietnam War. The city is beautiful! Hoi An’s Old Town was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. With such credentials, you can imagine the number of tourists in this city. You can also imagine the number of businesses that have popped up to support the tourists. The Old Town is filled with hundreds of old buildings, many of which are occupied by tailors and shoemakers offering to make you a dress or stitch you some shoes for $10 or $15. It’s a little disconcerting.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to see and do here beyond getting a new wardrobe made. We’ve visited Chinese Assembly Halls (many Chinese fled to Vietnam after the Ming Dynasty fell in the 17th century) and explored restored homes, such as the Museum of Trading Ceramics (not too edifying except for the small section on the history of restoring old Hoi An buildings). One of our most interesting visits was to Reaching Out Vietnam, a fair trade shop where all the handicrafts are made by disabled people. Johanna and I spent about an hour browsing the store and watching the tradespeople make the items sold in the store. According to the Reaching Out brochure, employees receive salaries that are 35% higher than other artisans and also receive health and social insurance. The employees we saw did look happy and interested in their work. It’s heartening to know that a Vietnamese-founded and Vietnamese-run organization has found such success in Hoi An.
And what would a visit to Vietnam be without eating some really good food? I’m not an epicurean but Johanna is – lucky me! We’ve tried all sorts of noodle, fish and vegetable dishes. I’m not the biggest fish person but braised fish with lemon grass sauce was one of my favorites. One of our favorite desserts was fried wonton with fruit and chocolate inside. We enjoyed that one at Mango Rooms, an upscale Vietnamese fusion restaurant where Mick Jagger supposedly once dined. Yes, even Mick Jagger has been to Hoi An.
All in all, I really like Hoi An. It’s easy to get around on bicycles, though the lack of stop lights and stop signs makes any journey a little bit dangerous. You’re constantly dodging motorbikes darting onto the road from hidden alleys and swerving away from bicycles moving into your path. Let’s just say traffic is very, very fluid here; lanes are optional. The people are friendly, though, and the vibe is peaceful. Whenever I visit a new place I always ask myself, “Could I live here?” And the answer for Hoi An is, “Yes. I love it.”
Street outside Tran Family Chapel
Abandoned house near the Thu Bon River
Tran Phu Street in Old Town Hoi An
Johanna inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Fish inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Dragon inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Restaurant in Hoi An
Banana flower salad
Bar at Mango Rooms restaurant
Marvelous menu at Mango Rooms
Wedding pictures in front of the Japanese Covered Bridge
Portraits in the Chinese All-Community Assembly Hall of Chinese resistance heroes in Vietnam who died during World War II.
Get your shoes made here.
Johanna trying on clothes in a tailor shop.
Johanna at Mango Rooms
Figuring out where to go next in Hoi An.
We took a bumpy shortcut to dinner.
View of Hoi An street outside the Mango Rooms restaurant.
12 hours in Hanoi
Mostly motorbikes and bicycles on the roads.
“Heaven” in a park around Hoan Kiem Lake.
View from the hotel room.
Kumquat tree on the hotel room balcony.
Royal Korean procession through Incheon Airport
One of the many reasons I love Korea – cultural experiences in the airport!
People are funny creatures
These pictures document one of the funniest sights I saw in Italy last year: the walkway leading to the Pisa Tower.
For about a quarter mile, all you see are people with their arms thrown up in the air “supporting” the leaning monument. Some of the more creative tourists try to “eat” the tower or “kiss” it or “lift” it. Most people are enthusiastic, really hamming it up for the camera. Others are like, “Just take the picture and get me out of here.”
I witnessed one argument break out between a couple. The woman couldn’t hit the pose that her boyfriend was art directing her to make. He got out from behind his camera to move her arms, hands, legs and hips into the “right” position. Heated words flew between the two. She did not smile for her picture. This is serious stuff, people! (You can see this couple in the fourth-to-the-last photograph.)
The last picture is my Mom in the Pisa pose most people seemed to be aiming for: hand supporting the tower, body leaning slightly back (because the building is so heavy, you know?) and a smile on her face. Bonus points for planting one foot in the street for extra support.
(Above: That's me photographing while snowshoeing through a snowstorm. Picture by 