Sri Lanka - Day 1

Quick!  Fast forward to present day!  Well, not present day, but close enough.  December 2011.

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David and I took a return trip back to Singapore last December to visit friends, eat at the places we had been dreaming about the last few months, and go to a friend's wedding.  While we were out there we decided to take a side trip to Sri Lanka.  "Why Sri Lanka?" was the question most asked about this choice, and basically it was because it was one place we hadn't been in SE Asia that wasn't a pain in the arse to get to.  And I had heard great things about Sri Lanka, how beautiful the country was, and everyone was talking about it being the next great undiscovered travel spot, blah blah blah.  In general, I pretty much knew nothing about Sri Lanka before I went there.  I knew it was close to India and was hoping for some good food, but that's about it.

After a bit of stress trying to plan a last minute trip to a foreign county (beach area or ancient city, beach or ancient city!?  Ancient city it was, it was the rainy season anyway), we put all the planning in the hands of a travel agency who booked a room and guide for us.  Done.

Arriving at 3am, we were able to get in a few hours of sleep before we headed out for our first day in Sri Lanka.  Here's the obligatory first shot from our hotel room in Columbo.

The first day we drove from the main city of Columbo out to where our hotel was in the Central Province.  It was only about 150km (90 miles), how long could it take?  Hours and hours, thats how long.  There are no freeways in Sri Lanka, just windy, curvy, crowded two lane roads.  Luckily there was lots to see.

There were a lot of rubber tree plantations along the way. It really does come from trees, you know, not a lab somewhere.  Trees!

Some street shots in a small town we passed through.

No, the bike is not that big - this guy was just that little.

Sri Lanka is known for its cashews, here's the lady that we bought our first package from.  David went a little nuts (no pun intended) and paid $25 for five tiny packages.  There was a bit of an argument about the cost ("This is not the state fair, David, don't just pay these amounts because they ask you to!"), but David won out, supporting the local economy.  They were pretty good, though.

Oh, look at the river and the pretty trees!  What's in the top of the tree?  Birds?

Wait, are those.... BATS?

Yes.  Yes, they are.  Dozens of them.

More nice (bat-free) scenery of the Sri Lankan countryside...

We stopped at a tea factory along the way, where we thoroughly enjoyed learning about Ceylon tea - the processing all the way from the green leaves to drying and sorting for the highest grade.

Getting late in the afternoon, we drove us through the main city of Kandy.  We chose not to stay overnight here as most do, I think the only thing to see was the Buddha Tooth Temple, which we had seen others in other countries as well, so we took a pass.  Who thought I'd ever say I'd seen too many Buddha Tooth Temples?

David has bought a mask in almost every country we've visited, and luckily again there was not a shortage of them available.

After a couple more hours of driving, we finally made it to the hotel where we both had bad car-headaches, but ready to get some sleep and see some cool stuff tomorrow.

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This is what we woke up to the next morning, bright and early.  Houseguests!  I love the tropics.

South Dakota Wildflowers

I've never tried to write this story down before.  I've told it more than a few times, but for some reason trying to put it into the written word was really hard.  Maybe because there are no pictures for me to fall back on.

On the last night we stayed at Custer National Park campground, Kelly and I got a little bored (we were unable to start a fire between the four of us), so Kelly, being the more more adventurous one, convinced me to walk around and see if there was anything interesting going on.  We came across a group of teenagers who had a great fire going, and (can I say it again?  Kelly, being the more adventurous one) walked right up and introduced herself.  Turns out it was a group of junior high kids from an indian reservation, and their - wait for it - very cute, very charming chaperone.

[Kelly and I have talked about what we remember him looking like - I remember him as a shorter version of Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins) from Friday Night Lights.  With longer hair and his baseball on backwards as was the  hallmark of cool back in the day.  She remembers him pretty much the exact opposite.  Hey, this was a long time ago.]

We were invited to share in the fire, and chatted with him and the boys for a long while, I remember one of the kids cracking jokes, throwing pop cans in the fire, and when the kid next to him didn't laugh, he took a red hot stick from the fire, pointed it at him and said deadpan "Laugh." Looking back, the grown up in me now would lecture him on fire safety, but at the time it was hysterical.

He asked where we were staying, we pointed toward our tent, and we tried to make plans to come hang out at their fire again the next night, but alas, they were on the way out the next morning and we probably wouldn't see them again.

We packed up early to head out to Mount Rushmore and had a great day.  When we returned, we set our stuff down, chatted for a bit, then headed to the tent.  I opened the flap, and saw the most beautiful thing.

Our entire tent was filled with wildflowers.  Laying on the pillow, hanging from the poles, in bunches around the side, there must of been dozens and dozens of them.  Yellow, white, green, it was really beautiful.

We were thrilled, it was so gorgeous, so unexpected, to think someone took the time to go through all this trouble.  They guys were a bit less charmed, complaining "Oh my god, they went in your tent???".  We didn't care, it was lovely.  And I can't believe I didn't take a picture.

Tim Riggins-ish dude, wherever you are.  Thank you.  This still is one of the best memories from a trip I've ever had.

South Dakota Shenanigans

Jumpin' Moses, has it really been that long since I posted?  Well, life seems to be getting back under control lately, so I hope to be a bit better in the coming months, I'm sure much to the relief of all my fans out there.  Or fan.  This is for you, Barb.  : )

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In May of 1994, my friend Kelly and I decided to take a trip to South Dakota.  Her very concerned father decided that he would allow us to take the family mini van and stay at the family farm (along the way to Mount Rushmore) only if we had some male escorts.  Nerdy ones were best, that way there wouldn't be any funny business, he said.  Good thing we were the Engineering program at the U, and such individuals were not hard to find.  Non-threatening escorts in hand, we were off!

If you're remotely in the area of South Dakota, you'll soon start seeing signs for Wall Drug.  Which means living in Minnesota, you see them about two hours outside of Minneapolis.  In case you're wondering, our house is a mere 517 miles from Wall Drug.  Only takes about 8 hours.  Of driving through cornfields.

But first, Mitchell Corn Palace!  There were plenty of signs along the drive for this tourist attraction as well, we were so excited to drive up.

There is is, right behind the Enchanted World Doll Museum!  The Corn Palace!

 Um, okay, it's pretty much just an auditorium.  Not a palace.  Utter disappointment, with a tinge of slight embarrassment admitting I actually thought it would be a palace.

No worries, a few more hours along the way, is the world famous Wall Drug.  It's pretty much just a some gift shops, a restaurant, and some "attractions".  That's okay, after the Corn Palace disappointment, expectations were low.  We had fun.

The Jackalope apparently has Kelly by the neck.

After 10 or so hours of driving, we finally made it to Custer State Park.  Separate tents, of course.

Buffalo!  I mean, Bison!  These suckers are huge, and they'll come right up to your car if you let them.

We drove to the state border between South Dakota and Wyoming, of course we had to take pictures.  I love how Kelly looks like she's levitating...

Quick, can you name the presidents on Mount Rushmore?  Don't be distracted by the picture below where the guy looks like he's about to jump off the ledge.

In case you can't figure it out, it's Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.

The nearby Badlands are stunning, and I didn't even have a very good camera.

This is pretty much the coolest picture my camera had ever taken.  Yes, that's me and Kelly on that cliff.  She slipped while we were climbing to get to that point, good thing we didn't know how far down it was...

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Next up?  One of the most romantic gestures that ever happened to me.  Or creepiest.  Depends on how you look at it.

Puddin' Head

My last side trip during my stay in Arizona was a trip to White Sands, New Mexico, as I had a friend living in Las Cruces at the time.  I think it speaks to how desperate I was for any sort of family to spend Thanksgiving with for me, who loathes road trips, to not think twice about driving seven hours by myself to see her for the weekend.

First, a word about my friend Katie.  We met my junior year in college, where she had just moved from Las Cruces to the frozen tundra of MN for a year as a college exchange student.  She was fabulous, an English-major-theater-minor who was a breath of fresh air among my engineering classmates.  Here's Katie:

I was once complaining about how nervous I was about changing my major.  I had contemplated it for weeks, excessively going back and forth and back and forth about what to do.  She tolerantly listened to me for a while, going on and on and on, when finally she stomped away, yelling, "Life is change, Chris, if you're not prepared to change you're not prepared to live!"  Stopped me dead in my tracks.  Changed my perspective immediately, and I still think of this even today when I'm worried about making decisions.  She, of course, doesn't remember saying this to me at all and said she probably read it on a fortune cookie at lunch.

We would hang out in our dorm rooms, and in an effort to come up with creative ways to delay studying, we would bring out the thesaurus and see how many words we could find that also meant "jerk".  "Eater of Rotten Meats" and "Pudding Head" were our favorites.  One night when I was eating ice cream, lamenting another relationship that hadn't gone they way I wanted, I confided that I thought I might be bulimic, because I liked to eat so much.  "Without the throwing up part, though." I added.  "Um, that would just make you... a pig." she corrected.  Oh, right.

On to less personal things, and to our trip to White Sands.  Did you know that it is the largest gypsum dune field in the world?  The gypsum isn't actually white - it's clear, but as the wind bounces the sand grains along the ground, they collide and scratch each other.  The scratches change the way the light reflects off the grains, making the sand appear white.

This trip was also significant to me, in that this was the first time I realized I liked taking pictures.  I mean taking them for art's sake, not just to remember stuff.  I want to decorate a room with these colors.

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And thus ends my short stay in the Southwest.  I miss the beauty but not the heat, the friends but not the job, and the one time in my life I've even remotely had a tan.

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Next up?  Being bad in The Badlands.  Sort of.

Grand Ol' Canyon

Picking up where I left just a few short... months ago. : )

(Reminder that we're flashing back to 1994 - the world wide web is just starting to take hold, and the NFL announces that the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the league's 30th team.  Just a reference point.)

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Last minute trip to the Grand Canyon!  Who thinks it never snows in Arizona?  This is just outside of Flagstaff, where we were caught in a bit of a storm.

We stopped for gas and the clerks were running outside to help so we didn't have to get out of our cars.  I waved them off saying "I'm from Minnesota.  This is nothing."

After reaching the Grand Canyon, we continue the theme of embarrassing pictures of me in iconic places.  What is with the hat?

I love how I only took four pictures while I was there, and a pictures of this explanation of why prices at McDonald's are so high is one of them.  Apparently I found it fascinating at the time.

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Next up?  White Sands.... of New Mexico.

The Jeep Wrangler - A Love Story

The Southwest United States is gorgeous.  One weekend one of my roommates and I took a road trip to Sedona, AZ to check out the scenery.  Stunning, really, like you can't believe it's real.  Like you're standing in the middle of a landscape painting.

John had a great Jeep Wrangler, which we (meaning him, he wouldn't let me drive) took all over the place, you can't believe what these things can do.  It was after this drive that I fell in love with the Wrangler, and was determined to someday own one.  One with no doors and no top, Minnesota weather be damned.

Here's John, staring down at the other little Jeeps below.

Since he was way more interested in seeing how many boulders he could drive over, I didn't get many pictures of me.  Here's an unfortunate one: 

Hold on, what am I wearing?

It was the early 90's, apparently I thought grunge meant looking as much like a boy as possible.  By the time I finally owned a Wrangler, I would be way more girly.

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Or would I?  That's me, on the right, a couple of years later with my very own Jeep.

At least my hair is longer.