my back...


this sleeping on trains business has got to stop.

India in 10 days (roughly)

So here's a rundown of things happening with me.

- Headed to India on the 10th of November. I have my visa in my hot little hand and I'm raring to go. The Visa, however, is only for 3 months, single entry. This is bullshit. It means that I need to leave the country (oh and get a visa to whatever other country to do so), reapply, then come BACK. One thing not mentioned anywhere--- if applying for an indian visa in ethiopia (oh my god i hate this computer... fuck spelling and grammar), even though you pay 250 birr MORE than anyone else, you will get only half the amount of time and entries. No exceptions. Fucking stupid.

- STA travel is retarded. I keep emailing them to ask about extending my insurance and buying a flight so that I can prove onward travel when I land in Mumbai. No one has gotten back to me. I want to give them money and they can't even get their shit together enough to take it. OR, they e-mail me back with a phone number to call. THERE ARE NO PHONES. THAT'S WHY I'M FUCKING EMAILING. .. so I'm not sure what I'm going to say to the immigration officials. Either that, or I need to buy a ticket from somewhre else,.


OH MY GOD THIS COMPUTER SUCKS. I CAN' T WRITE ANYMORE>

TREVOR

Trev, I hope you still read my blog every now and again.

These fucking shitty fucking Ethiopian computers won't let me do ANYTHING. I can sign onto facebook, alright, but forget trying to read anything in my inbox/write on peoples' walls/update my status. Oh, and no messenger, no Yahoo, no Gmail Chat, and DEFINITELY no Skype.

Anyway, so I got your message about there being something incredibly important in my facebook inbox.. I just can't CHECK my inbox to see what it is.

I wasn't planning on updating, but hell,... why not? I just finished my first week of teaching English in an Ethiopian school. Observations:

1. I don't hate children as much as I thought I did. Some of them are really, really cute. I have actually taken a liking to one or two in every class. I know it's wrong to have favorites, but they live in Ethiopia, for God's sake. They already know that life isn't fair.

2. Western children are spoiled brats. "Waaah... Billy has better video games than I do" ... "Waaaah... Jimmy took my toy", "Waaaah... I want clean water to drink!" ... ALWAYS complaining. These kids here, in my grade school, play soccer with a deflated basketball. 50 children. One sad little crushed basketball. And you know what? They don't give a damn! They run around playing with it all day long, only stopping to blow it up every now and again. I'm not sure if it's awesome or heartbreaking... but I'm leaning towards awesome.

I will write more next week. I just logged on to tell TREVOR... I CAN'T READ YOUR MESSAGE IN MY INBOX. EITHER PUT IT ON MY WALL, OR SEND ME AN EMAIL.

That's all.

Last day in the Middle East

So I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Cairo, waiting for my flight at 2 am tomorrow morning. I really, really have to pee. Ack! The crappy thing about checking out of your hostel first thing in the morning is that you have nowhere to waste your time until your flight.

Happily, I managed to get quite a bit done here today. I bought some easy children's books for the kids I'll be working with in Ethiopia, washed my laundry (aka, rubbed a bar of soap all over the mound, then hosed it down with the bathroom shower-head... strange that the shower itself is in no way separated from the rest of the stuff in the bathroom), and dropped about 5 pounds off my pack for the flight.

Anyway, before I take off from the Middle East, let me recap the last couple of weeks.

I finished at Bahariyya Oasis, and decided to go to Luxor instead of Dahab (I mean, how many beaches can one person really take, anyway?) and quickly realized it to be the ninth circle of hell. Holy crap, it's hot. Hot and dirty. Also, you can't take photos at like, half of the sites there. Here's one of the few that I DID manage to get, at the Colossi of Memnon. Yeah, I know- cheesy... but it was really hot and I couldn't think of anything less campy. They were pretty cool. I also got a look at the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and Hatshepsut's Temple. No pictures. -pout-

Anyway, after Luxor, I decided to go to Dahab anyway. A series of unfortunate events in Luxor (and the intervention of good old common sense), dissuaded me from trying to stuff Jordan in my trip plans as well, and I spent a few days snorkeling, shopping, and simply BEING. Morgan from Isla de Ometepe was right. Dahab IS paradise. (Reiteration of question phrased above: How many beaches can one person really take? Answer: A LOT.) What makes Dahab, and really, the rest of the Sinai penninsula so different from the beaches in C.A. is that the reef comes RIGHT up to the water's edge. You have about 3 feet of sand, then straight up coral, then bottomless ocean, filled with fishies. Highlight: I think I saw a fish orgy. Lowlight: I saw a huge jellyfish out of my peripheral vision and went berzerk, started to scream, inhaled salt water, fought for the surface, and pissed myself right in the middle of a school of very unhappy fish. The jellyfish = plastic bag filled with water. FUCKING GARBAGE. For my first time (last time?) snorkeling, it was pretty cool. There's a photo of the Funny Mummy restaurant under the 'Egypt Photos' tab. Literally, the reef was RIGHT there.

Now the good stuff: Israel.

I'm going to add an Israel tab up top, so I'll try not to bog this post down with too many photos... but let me do a quick rundown of each day.

29th of September

- My arrival. It took 1 border, 2 buses, and 3 different trains (stupid Yom Kippur) to get to Nahariya... but when I did, I was greeted with Shiran's smiling face. And food!

- Nothing much for the rest of the day- tried to send some stuff at the post office, but was foiled. Shiran, Shiri, and Shiri's boyfriend came out with me for a birthday drink at midnight. It was nice.

30th of September

-Akko. FUCKING awesome. Very colonial, and mmmm- such good hummus

- Rosh Hanikra. Even better than fucking awesome! There's a photo under the 'Israel' tab. I've never seen water that blue- especially up close... well, except for maybe the Red Sea... but even so- the Mediterranean is better.

-Tel Aviv.... OK- I had planned to have as much fun as I could on my 25th birthday. It's a big one, right? But I had secretly, in my heart, been aware that being away from home, being away from everything that I know- it just wouldn't be the same. This is true. IT WAS BETTER. Of course, I would have loved to have everyone at home in Israel with me... but really... how many times in your life can you get smashed in Tel Aviv, reunite with someone you met in a foreign country two years ago, puke in 4 different locations throughout the city, and get carried home by a mixture of old school homies, and brand new ones? Here's a photo from that night. One of my best birthdays... EVER.

1st of October

- Woke up and immediately went for hangover munchies.

-Shopped all over town, and got to glimpse the seaside. First major city I've been to with beaches that weren't buried in garbage. Here's a picture of me with some hot young soldiers. God- I love a man with a gun... too bad they're all about 18 years old.

-All you can eat dinner just outside of Nahariya.

2nd of October

-The Golan

-The Sea of Galilee. It was really beautiful... but there were lots of people on the shore doing weird stuff. Pretending to walk on water earned me the stink-eye from everyone else there. It was worth the picture though.

-The famous bread-and-fish stone. I'll post the pic under the 'Israel photos' tab that I've yet to create. Too many pics for such a small space, I think. End the night back in Nahariya after scaling the border with Lebanon. Lots of tanks. Lots of fences.

3rd of October

-Ein Gedi and The Dead Sea. Watch me float on my belly! People weren't joking when they said not to put your head anywhere near the water. I got a drop on my lip and felt like puking when I licked it off. It also makes all your fragile parts burn. Stupid salt.

4th of October

-Jerusalem. I'm not sure what I can say to encompass what Jerusalem as actually like. Uhm- Historical? Chaotic? INCREDIBLE? The city itself wasn't all that much to look at... but we took a free tour around the city and it's fucking insane how much such a small plot of land can mean to so many people. Here's a photo of me at the Wailing Wall. I'm thinking of my prayer.

5th of October

-Hiking in Ein Gedi, and my departure. I won't write too much here. The area itself was ... uhm... rock-ish. From what I gather from my two lovely guides, there used to be a lot more water. It was still really pretty though.

This is a long post- whew! Tonight, I take off for Ethiopia, and I wanted to close the chapter on my Middle East experiences before I moved on. It's so odd being right in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict and yet meet awesome people on both sides, with such fascinating lives and such a friendliness about them... you can't help but be charmed. Really love this part of the world. Really love the food. Next time I come back, I'm bringing drawstring pants.

Thoughts on Egypt

Gotta make this a quick one (I always say that, don't I?) .. I'm going to be picked up for a felucca ride in about half an hour, so I'm going to limit this post to just a bit of Cairo and Bahariyya Oasis. Here's a photo of some cool mushroom shaped rocks from the latter. I know it doesn't make sense to post it up here... but I thought it would be more aesthetically pleasing balance out the text/photo ratio of this post.

I got in at Cairo airport about a week ago. One thing I want to point out: EVERY TRAVEL GUIDE EVER LIES. I have chosen to go without a guidebook for Egypt as a byproduct of my exasperation with the Lying Planet Central America.... but did a bit of research both online and in the Rough Guide about Egypt. Everything says that it's possible to get a multiple entry visa in Cairo airport. WRONG! I'm no spring chicken to getting scammed... but honest to God, you can't. First you get a regular entry visa, then you have to go to another building in downtown Cairo to get a re-entry visa.. particularly if heading to Israel. An observation: Going to any bureaucratic institution in Cairo city is a nightmare. I've never been pushed and shoved so much in my life... and I went to public school!

Oh, wait... I'm supposed to be keeping this short. Sorry. My first few days in Egypt included the pyramids, the Egyptian museum, and Khan al Khalili market. I posted pics of these under my "Egypt Photos" tab. All were marvelous... but God, talk about a congregating point for scammers. I think I've hit my limit for "friends" taking me to their "brother's" perfume shops due to the museum being "closed at this time... you can go when they open in half an hour". NO baksheesh! NO BAKSHEESH!

Anyway... I took leave after a few days and headed out to the western desert to see Bahariyya Oasis. I stayed at a place called Sahara Camp, which had a common room that looked like this. Pretty cool, huh? The place was paradise, and it was only 3 bucks a night for my own, two-bedded hut! Sweet.

Through Sahara... I met a Japanese guy named Toshi with whom I ventured into the desert. Most of it was pretty, athough uneventful-- just climbing all over rocks and looking at stuff... but nothing was really ALL that exceptional, until we hit the White Desert. There's a photo or two under the tab, but here's a cool one of the site we stayed at... I would have liked to be somewhere a bit more enclosed since sand kept getting in my eyes, and I had to sleep with my sunglasses on... but the stars were sooo bright. It was pretty cool.

Oh, and here's a photo of a desert fox. They came to visit when we layed down to rest. Cute little buggers, aren't they?

An interesting piece of knowedge for Americans headed to the deserts of Egypt. If you tell the police (who have checkpoints every few miles down the highway) that you're an American, ... they will send a couple of armed guards in the car with you. If you lie about being from another country (in my case, the driver told me to tell them I was from China).. they will hassle you and scream in English while trying to get you to show your passport... and then try to put armed guards in the car with you. Lowering your IQ and faking an accent helps.

I managed to get away armed guard free (hooray for my driver!)... but not without sprouting a white hair or two in the process. I think I would have been better off telling them the truth... but once you start lying, going back makes you look like a douche. It's a slippery slope.

OK, I'm out of time.... for real. Off to Luxor!

Books I've Read on This Trip

I first started this account sometime in August/September 2009 with the hope of having read the "Best 100 Books of All Time" before finishing my trip. The idea was that I'd finally read all those novels I was supposed to have studied in undergrad- now that I had time. It didn't happen. Below is a record of the books I DID manage to complete. Most of them are on the list, but many of them are not. One thing that unites them is that they ALL affected the outcome of my trip in some way, and they ALL enriched my experiences (yeah, even the "Twilight" books. Don't judge me) in one manner or another. I also attempted to finish Vanity Fair, but it wasn't working out and I decided to stop and spend the rest of my leisure time musing instead. I'm ambitious- not impervious to boredom.

1. Hemingway's Short Stories - Hemingway

2. 1984 - Orwell

3. The World According to Garp - Irving

4. Emma - Austen

5. Around the World in 80 Days - Verne

6. Middlesex - Eugenides

7. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Hosseini
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Kesey

9. A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - Beah

10. The Stranger - Camus

11. Gulliver's Travels - Swift

12. There is no Me Without You - Greene

13. Hamlet - Shakespeare

14. Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald

15. I'm OK, You're OK - Harris

16. Robinson Crusoe - DeFoe

17. The Kite Runner - Hosseini

18. Flowers for Algernon - Keyes

19. The Color Purple - Walker

20. Shantaram - Roberts

21. The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Doyle

22. Garden of Eden - Hemingway

23. Oliver Twist - Dickens

24. Frankenstein - Shelley

25. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Murakami

26. Life of Pi - Martel

27. Marching Powder - Young

28. The Hobbit - Tolkien
29. Matilda - Dahl

30. Burmese Days - Orwell

31. Eclipse - Meyers

32. Julius Caesar - Shakespeare

33. Motorcycle Diaries - Guevara

34. Breaking Dawn - Meyers

35. Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas

36. Dune - Herbert

37. Jazz - Morrison

38. Love in the Time of Cholera - Marquez

39. A Widow for One Year - Irving

40. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde

41. The Bell Jar - Plath

Going, Going, Gone!

So I'm writing from the first decent computer I've been at in almost 3 months. Man, it's nice to be at my sister's house!

Let's catch up on my last few weeks in Latin America.

I left for San Juan del Sur and spent about a week getting punished by the waves at Playa Maderas by day and partying at Matilda's Hostel by night. Here's a shot of the view from my dorm around 6pm every evening. Man, I wish I'd been able to get that horizon straight and do this shot some justice. 

Matilda's was great, SJDS was great, and aside from puncturing my foot on very pointy rocks on the walk from Matilda's to the actual surfable beach-- I passed all 4 or so days there in absolute serenity.

Before I continue, I should mention that I had some pilferage in my money belt after my time in the BioReserve in Esteli, and followed up by canceling my credit cards. That was almost 3 weeks ago, and I have yet to get one fully functional card. After 5 different phone calls to different Washington Mutual agents, followed by a myriad of e-mails with lord knows how many MORE WaMu (or, rather, Chase) agents, I have a debit card without a PIN. No money for me--- and I fly to Egypt on Wednesday. Huzzah for not having a plan!

Anyhow, I took out enough money to survive until I got to DC in cash, then cancelled my cards and continued on to Isla de Ometepe. Here's a view from the Mirador halfway up Volcan Maderas. Pretty amazing, huh? Too bad it rained the whole way up and the whole way down this 3 hour hike. Was pretty slippery, and not good for the poor Israeli guy with only one functional foot... but definitely worth it for this view.

Spent a few more days in Ometepe partying, relaxing, and catching up on my reading in a hammock until about a day before I flew. I had intended on leaving earlier, but my whole backpack got stolen! The crazy thing is that it happened on a really rainy night from my dorm room in the middle of the jungle. Who would go through all that trouble for some dirty mismatched clothes and a beat up pair of retainers? I mean, really. The pain in the ass it caused for me is at least 20x greater than the value of anything they could have actually gotten out of the bag.

Anyway, I had something of an emotional breakdown that night, and spent the rest of my time on the Isla boozing like crazy. The last day there, I went down to Ojo de Agua with a couple of 

cool kids from my hostel. The day was pretty much perfect. Forget the bag, forget that it was raining the whole way there, forget that Chico was VERY much drunk and we had to keep convincing him to let Ines drive.... floating on my back in the water and watching the rain drop from the sky was one of the most surreal things I've done on this trip so far. Also, taking pictures with Nemo's underwater camera was sweet. Here's a shot from that day. It didn't come out as symmetrical as I would have liked... but still pretty cool.

I thought I might post a photo of me at the airport here. Here I am with all my luggage. You can see all of it in the photo. Btw- passing through customs with a grocery bag containing only one change of clothes, a flashlight and two cans of bug spray will gain you nothing but questions. First time I have ever been pulled into the "little room." Now I know what it's like to be of Middle Eastern descent.

Overall, Central America was great. Had oodles of fun and met lots of cool peeps. I would have liked to have less robbery involved though. Being robbed less would have been great.

So, as things stand now... I'm currently without luggage or money... and I'll be on my way to Cairo in less than 5 days. I'm just as clueless as everyone else as to how I'm going to survive for the next year and some without either of these two things. I'll keep you all updated as I arrive at solutions.