8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar

Indiana Nana and the Temple of Heatstroke

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As a history teacher, I really should have known better than to base any expectations of visiting Southeast Asian temples on the Indiana Jones movies. For starters, I'm enough of a nerd to know that no Indiana Jones movies were set in Cambodia and Thailand, nor were they filmed there. And even if they had been, Hollywood is infamous for getting just about nothing right.

Justin's been to the Louvre, and I have not, and he says that the first thing that everyone always thinks when they see the Mona Lisa is that they can't believe how small it is. I don't think any of these people consciously sat around expecting the Mona Lisa to be a particular size; it's just that somewhere, unconsciously, we built an expectation of it. Similarly, I didn't take deliberate notes on movies to decide what I thought exploring around Thailand and Cambodia would be like, but I do think I formed some subliminal expectations in which movies played a role. So here are some of my expectations which were or were not validated by our travels.


1) Expectation: Creepy, dark, and underground. INVALID.

You know that scene, when the hero or heroine picks up a torch and heads into the dark building. He or she descends some stairs into mysterious blackness, waving a torch back and forth to illuminate carvings on walls, or holding it high to read ancient inscriptions. Part of what makes these places so creepy and atmospheric is the dark jungle, right?

Except not. Note how this gate in a Cambodian temple opens up into.... a SINISTER SUNLIT COURTYARD.

Must be a trap.
When you stop to think about it, the whole pitch-black-interior thing is very 20th century. Before electricity, you lit a room with daylight. Period. And if you didn't, and you used candles or torches instead, then you still needed some kind of ventilation to the outside unless you wanted to smother all of your worshippers - at least, the ones who aren't already dead because the weight of the temple caused it to collapse into your tunnels (see Cambodian Temple Architecture for Dummies for review on this topic). There is a reason that the dug-out underground facilities tend to be for dead people.

Wat U Mong is a forest wat (temple) in Chiang Mai, and it's famous for the fact that it's basically the only one with underground tunnels. Lo and behold, it is dark inside. Not as dark as it looks in pictures (the human eye is really amazing) but dark.

And yet a totally uncreepy entrance.
Naturally lit tunnels

Wat Umong Buddha lit with electric lights, skylight, and camera flash. In the 1400s they could only afford to do this on special occasions.


2) Expectation: A walk in the park. INVALID.

I expected that there would be walking. I can do that. And I knew I'd have to go up a bit. But I did not ever wrap my head around the sheer physical toll of schlepping up multiple sets of multi-story staircases which only occasionally had the benefit of a handrail. Sometimes the steps were so narrow that your feet didn't even fit going forwards and you had to climb sideways, like a crab.

Stairs. Why did it have to be stairs?
Did I mention it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit?

I hate stairs, Jock! I HATE 'EM!
You can see Cambodia much more cheaply than we did - without the hired guide and van - but I wouldn't recommend it. If we hadn't had air conditioning to pop back into at the end of each temple, and the giant cooler full of water and ice packs, I don't know what we would have done. Certainly we would have had to visit fewer spots - which is what we did in Thailand, when we simply decided to pick a few representative temples and call it a trip.

Survival tactics
 3) There will be monkeys, and they will probably be evil. VALID.

Don't eat the dates!
4) Your best friend is your hat. VALID.

FABULOUS.




The sun in the tropics is brutal, especially with our skin tones. We both wear SPF 50 and top up every few hours and still get a touch of burn. I'm so pale that Justin has to use camera filters to photograph me in direct sunlight.

It's a defense against predators.
We bought our hats in the market in Cambodia. This may be a good time to point out that Justin is a great guy but the world's worst haggler. This is, I swear to you, a verbatim conversation about buying Justin's hat.

Vendor: You want a hat? This one is $8.
(Justin reaches for wallet)
Me: That's a bit much.
Vendor: $7?
Justin: No, $8 is fine.

Justin is not allowed to speak in marketplaces anymore.

My hat, which also started out at $8, eventually cost me $3. It tragically died due to smashing in my suitcase.

Also I fought a lion for it.
Fortunately, these hats are pretty generic, so I was able to replace it in Thailand with 99% the same hat, just without the beads around the brim. I've saved the beads in tribute to a great friend.

NO HAT LEFT BEHIND.
5) Your greatest enemy is not sun, or stairs, or sword. It is stomach. VALID.


A behind-the-scenes story tells that in Raiders of the Lost Ark, filmmakers had to convert a complex choreographed whip-and-sword duel between Indy and a local into the iconic scene where Indy just shoots the guy because Harrison Ford had diarrhea and couldn't film a longer sequence. Now that, we can relate to. And I don't think you need any more details than that.






Brush with the law

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Justin and I went for lunch today to Aslan Kebab, a great German/Turkish kebab restaurant about a five minute bike ride away. While we were there, an intrepid Fukuoka policeman came by and decided that he did not like the location where we'd parked our bikes. Okay, we can move them, no problem. But then he noticed while we moved the bike that my bike has a built in lock - and it's broken.


Yes, I said, sadly (in English because attempted robbery must be in book 2 of our Genki Japanese course.) Someone broke the lock on my bike at our apartment one night. We bought the chain lock to replace it.

Mm hmm, says the policeman, tapping the city registration number on the bike. And this is your bike?

Yes, it's my bike.

May I have your name, please?

Which is when I realize that the policeman thinks I stole my bike. 

There is a Chris Rock routine in which he describes being pulled  over by a policeman who is so convinced Rock stole the car he's driving that Chris Rock starts to believe it himself - "Maybe I did... Oh, Lawd, I done stole a car!" That was me, trying desperately to remember whether the bike was registered in my name or Justin's, and eventually becoming so disoriented that I might have been convinced I stole the bike after all. And in the meantime helpful the restaurant owner and random Japanese people keep popping out of the restaurant offering to help translate to make sure that I don't end up in the Japanese equivalent of Gitmo.Unless, of course, I had it coming.

Fortunately, the bike database people call back with the information that yes, the bike is registered to someone with a foreign name (not that he ever saw an ID from me to prove it was MY name) and I'm at liberty to go. But it does occur to me that this would be a great prank to pull on somebody: break their bike lock so they go around constantly under suspicion of bike theft.

How to get on an elephant

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I am working on a post on our visit to Patara Elephant Farm, but the truth is a day like that really defies words. So here's some of the 360 photos and video we took that day to answer to the immortal question, "How do you get on an elephant?"

One of two ways. The most common way is up the side, standing on the foreleg and grabbing the ear.

My high school motto was "Strength and Grace." I got 50% right.
video

But if you're Justin, and you get a crotchety elephant named Mei Kham Souk (note: spelling is me being extremely creative), then she won't let you climb up her leg. You have to do the second way: climb over the head.



video

And hey presto! That's all it takes to go from landlubber:



to elephant jockey!



LOOK MA NO HANDS!


What, you want to know how to get DOWN? Oh, fine.Well, first, you tap the elephant on the head and say "Down," in Thai. Which I don't remember.


Then, over the head you go!

Then thank the elephant. They remember if you don't.
Try to get a good photographer. Then you can immortalize the 1/64th of a second in which you don't look like a total klunk and persuade everybody that this was normal for the day.


 
And that's all for today's lesson. Upcoming lesson include "How to feed your elephant," "How to bathe your elephant," "How to swim with elephants," and "How (and why) to smell elephant poop."

Sending Money by Japan Post; Or, Carrying Loads of Cash

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Pretty much every customs form in the world has a line where you, dear traveller, must declare whether you're carrying more than the equivalent of $10,000 US in cash or cash instruments. I used to wonder what kind of people just had ten grand on them. I mean, who carries ten thousand freaking dollars in cash? Maybe I've read too many Greek myths, but that just seems beyond insane - a level of implied hubris that's practically begging the universe to steal your stash.
So why am I about to show you a picture of Nana holding over $10,000 US in Japanese yen?
Instead of dead presidents, we have dead 19th-century Japanese intellectuals.

You see, Japan is a cash economy. You pay for your dinner in cash. You pay for your groceries in cash. You pay for your domestic plane tickets and your all-female musical theater revue tickets in cash. Granted, you have to go use a special ticket machine at the convenience store - but when you're done, you take the stub to the counter and pay. In cash.

If you're us, you also need reams of paper and a patient Japanese clerk.

I'd write a post about how we did this, but it basically involved printing out a bunch of stuff in Japanese, handing it to the guy behind the counter, and hoping for the best.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First, for anything but entertainment, the Japanese are pretty technophobic. Scratch the surface of any business's filing system and it's dead trees as far as the eye can see.

Second, Japan is pretty safe. Petty theft is extremely rare, making loss the only common risk involved in carrying cash.

Third, the Japanese are fiscally ultra-conservative. While household savings rates in Japan have fallen from their boom-time peaks, the Japanese still save a lot of money, most of which they shovel into low-risk, low-return investments like savings accounts and government bonds. As a result, credit cards aren't nearly as ubiquitous here as they are in the States - and neither are the many credit-card-driven point-of-sale technologies that make American debit cards possible.

Finally, the government itself is extremely conservative when it comes to banking and finance. Good for dodging credit crunches and keeping the yen high, not so for providing high-tech infrastructure and customer service. And when it comes to international banking, it's almost medieval: most Japanese have little reason to send money overseas, so naturally the process is both expensive and viewed with suspicion.

This is a roundabout way of saying that, in Japan, most of the usual tricks for sending money home simply don't work. Paypal? Forget it. Online banking? Unheard of. You can go to your bank in person and arrange a reasonably fast wire transfer, but it's super expensive and there are a lot of annoying little regulatory hoops.

That's why most foreigners send their money home by Japan Post.

Now, don't panic - that's not quite what you think, though you are allowed to send cash by mail within Japan.

You see, Japan Post is also a savings bank. As a savings bank, they offer a "transfer" service that basically involves issuing a secure foreign-currency money order in your name, then physically mailing it to your bank, where it's deposited it into your account.

So once in a blue moon, when we have savings to liberate from our zero-interest Japanese savings account (?!?), we have to go through a mildly terrifying ordeal that looks something like this:

  1. Find your banking info. This includes the street address of your "home branch," which is barely even a thing in the US, but they have to send the money order somewhere.
  2. Withdraw about $5000 from the ATM. That's not an extra zero - $5000 is the daily limit. 
  3. Bike very, very carefully for the quarter mile between the ATM and the post office.
  4. Fill out a goofy old form printed in English by an ancient dot-matrix printer.
  5. Walk out the door and promptly forget about the fact that you just sent a five-figure money order across the Pacific.
  6. Be pleasantly surprised and feel irrationally richer when the money appears in your US account.
And that's Japanese technology in a nutshell: we can use our lightning-fast broadband connection to check our balance on a different continent, but only after we've mailed ourselves a million-yen money order we had to pay for in cash.

Surprise! It's Columbus!

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Nana and I are back in the US - and vaguely alert, after a long morning's nap. This time around, we're starting our American tour in Columbus, OH, where the forecast high for today if 105 F. Two days ago, we were skiing. Today, we're hunkering down in an air-conditioned room with all the blinds drawn. Not a bad way to spend your jet-lag recovery, on the whole.

Stay tuned for some Down Under blog posts, as soon as we sort through these massive piles of photos from the trip!

7 Temmuz 2012 Cumartesi

Five Off Beat & inexpensive Texas Road Trip Ideas

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When out of state tourists think of Texas road trips, only a few hot spots come to mind: The Alamo, Austin night life, and that is about it. I wanted to point out some other lesser-known city and covering attractions that might make for an lively road trip.

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Schlitterbahn - For your summer time road trip, drive your water-amusement-park-lovin' self down to New Braunfels, Texas and get your feet wet in this German themed oasis of fun. There are two parts to this park, and I personally enjoy the older first-rate part. I don't know, there is just something nostalgic about that muddy water tube slides and river tubing.

I am sure the kids and the wife would prefer the newer part with a manufactured river of the chlorinated persuasion one can lounge on alligator floaty on all day. It keeps you lively whether you want to or not. There are also huge slides that make for a real tongue swallower!

Tubing on the Guadalupe River - While in the area, this is right on something to write home about a Texas favorite. There are any different routes ranging from one hour to four that will make your day on the river a time flexible reality. You can even drink beer while tubing, but be right and don't get carried away (no pun intended). As a new rule, they do limit it to one six pack per person.

I'd suggest doing some explore online for potential "float the river" tips. For inner tube coupons from varied providers, type in Tubing on the Guadalupe River in Google without quotes. Bring a picnic basket and you house can have a pretty reasonable day of fun.

San Antonio's Haunted railroad Crossing - After tubing all day, you still have time to make a trip that night an hour away in San Antonio. South of San Antonio, in a low key neighborhood not too far from the San Juan Mission is an intersection of roadway and railroad track that has come to be known in a catalog of American ghost lore.

In 1941, a catholic school bus full of kids made its way down the road and toward the intersection. It stalled on the railroad tracks and a speeding train crushed the bus, sacrificing all of the children. The bus driver, a nun, survived, until she went insane and committed suicide.

Since the accident over 60 years ago (as the story goes), any vehicle stopped on the railroad tracks will be pushed by tiny unseen hands over the tracks to safety. This is the only part of the city where ghost children help with your defensive driving in San Antonio. Try using baby power on your bumper, so you can see their prints! This is right on spooky, and from caress it works too!

In the last ten years, the railroad crossing has grown has grown rapidly in popularity, with tourists visiting nightly mostly due to online ghost and haunting stories research.

Fredericksburg, Texas - If you're not down for ghost chases, here is a wee less paranormal sabbatical, for the next day in your vacation. Known for bed and morning meal houses and old stores, Fredericksburg, Texas is a small town placed in Gillespie County (almost the exact middle of Texas). A exquisite get away for you and your honey after a day on the river. They have over 300 accommodations for a town with 8,911 in population.

Only 63 miles north of San Antonio and 67 miles west of Austin, you could make a half day of a visit, the whole day and spend the night in a bed and breakfast. There are also quite a few hunting and fishing opportunities. Men, you might save that for other road trip with your buddies when you aren't with your wife or necessary other.

Luckenbach, Texas - While in Fredericksburg you might as well hit Luckenbach not very far away. "Everybody's somebody in Luckenbach, Texas" because it is officially Texas' smallest town with an official government census habitancy in 1970 of 3. Waylon and Willy sang about it.

The oldest building in town is a normal store/saloon opened in 1849 by Minna Engel, whose father was an itinerant preacher from Germany. The store is also a gift shop where you can get a shirt and a shot glass, your merit badge to any city along your Texas road trip.

There you have it folks, five off beat and reasonable Texas road trip ideas.

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Practice Permit Test - Your Key to Passing the DMV Learner's Permit Test on the First Try

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Texas Driver Safety Course Online! Again, for I know. Ready to share new things that are useful. You and your friends.

A practice permit test can be found online, in a good driver education class, or through online driver ed programs. But be careful! All of the online variety are written and edited by people from a variety of backgrounds. An article in a major Sacramento newspaper stated that the owner of one of the top online driver ed courses did have a license...but it was for pest control!

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How is Practice Permit Test - Your Key to Passing the DMV Learner's Permit Test on the First Try

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I am the owner of a driving school in Folsom, CA. We have taught driver education and driver training for over 18 years. 10,000 or more students. So we have a pretty good idea of how to prepare our students for the DMV test. In fact we have 2 former DMV Examiners on our staff. Here are some of our recommendations for getting your learner's permit and driver's license...and making sure you are SAFE when you start driving.

Our first recommendation would be to get yourself into a classroom driver education course. If you take a class as opposed to the online version, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and get clarifications from a living, breathing teacher who can see if you are "getting it" or not. Online? You get it or you don't. If you can't find a driver ed class in a classroom, then ask around and find the best possible online driving course. Regardless of which way you go, be sure you take a practice permit test...or TEN! The only way to be sure you know the rules of the road, and right down to the smallest detail, is to work through as many practice permit test questions as you can before getting to the DMV. You need to find out just what kind of questions will be asked, how they will be worded, and what kind of details need to be learned. The best free practice permit test one we have found is at the link in this sentence. They offer a free sample permit test of 20 questions with no strings, so you can see how you do and see if you like their product. If you are in California, the dmv has a great free practice permit test too at the their site. The dmv practice test is just like the real thing, of course, and is a good prep for you.

Driving is going to be fun, but it does carry a ton of responsibility. Take the right approach now, by starting off with learning the rules and safety issues before getting behind the wheel. An online course can be "Quick" and "Easy" and "Cheap," but this is no time to cut corners.

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Back to School - Bus security Tips

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Beginning in early August and all the way straight through much of September, schools throughout the country begin welcoming students back from their summer hiatus. Whether you are a parent, child, school administrator, driver, or a implicated citizen, the following tips will help keep our nation's students safe.

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How is Back to School - Bus security Tips

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1. Bus Stop. Your child's bus stop should be in an area that is well lit, absolutely accessible, and away from traffic. If it is not, palpate school administrators to have the stop moved. In some situations you may need to palpate the school board instead. If you live in an area where there is heavy snowfall, make sure that the stop is sufficiently free of snow, ice, and related debris.

2. Clothing. Children should be wearing bright colored clothing, especially if waiting for the bus before sunrise or getting home after dark. Place movable reflective tape on their outer garments including on their hats and coats.

3. Boarding. Teach your children to only move send to board the school bus when it has come to a perfect stop and the driver opens the door. Children should line up single file as they await entrance.

4. Seating. Virtually all school buses Do Not come adequate with seatbelts, nor are seats strong enough to resist impact in the event of a crash. Teach your children to be seated at all times and facing forward. Study assorted brace positions to get ready for the possibility of an accident. Learn elective exit strategies including using the urgency door or windows.

5. Exiting. When exiting the bus, children must move far away from the vehicle to allow the driver to see that they have cleared the bus and are safely away from traffic. Instruct your children to stay away from the bus' rear wheels at all times.

6. Awareness. Teach your children to be aware of other traffic in the area. Do not assume that drivers will stop for them or even see them. If children must cross the street, they are to do so only with the driver directing them. Have them constantly finding both ways as they cross the road until they are safely on the other side.

Every year children die or are injured in school bus related accidents. Many die as a follow of a collision bright their bus with an additional one vehicle while others are killed or hurt as they fail to clear the area colse to the bus or are hit by oncoming traffic.

You can keep your child safe by raising their awareness of inherent hazards while the rest of us can make school bus safety a priority by obeying the rules of the road. Let's make this school year a safe one.

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Driver safety and study is of Vital importance

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Driver Safety School! Again, for I know. Ready to share new things that are useful. You and your friends.

One of the best ways to learn how to drive for teens is to take up driver education courses that are often taught at their school while the summer semesters. It is probably one of the best way to learn as such courses are often conducted in enclosed driving ranges, avoiding highways and byways. while these driving courses you will gain hands on driving where traffic conditions are simulated and learn all the rules of driving.

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Classrooms will cover all driving law and drive home the responsibility that comes with driving. All accurate procedures like managing intersections are covered as well as what signs mean. In some courses you are also taught technical skills like changing flat tires or oil changes. All the rules and regulations are stressed upon to ensure that by the time a pupil is graduated that they understand what is legal and what isn't.

A lot of the studying concentrates on driver security training. Like how to drive in good and bad weather especially when roads tend to be glossy and full of danger. You learn defensive driving that will enable you to come out of a spin or skid with safety. From it you will also understand how hazardous it is to use the car in snow drifts. You will also know all about important it is to stay entertaining and alert at all times because it is more about what other drivers do than what you do that is important. Paying attention is a must so using mobiles while driving is a accurate no no.

One part of the procedure will deal with driving while under the sway of drugs and alcohol which is as deadly as not knowing how to drive. Much time will be spent in impressing how serious an issue this is and you will be required to watch film footage showing what would happen if you chose to take such substances. This is something that a teacher might not impress upon you by teaching it. Seeing a optical of what could happen is often what leaves the student with the most impression which will make him or her wary of doing anything other than drive safely.

What could happen in case of accidents and how to forestall them happening is covered. Teachers will stress the significance of retention your vehicle in good condition so that it does not relate a danger to you or other drivers.

But the most important aspect of these classes is to institute the pupil's mindset to driving. You just can't afford to be too reckless or cavalier when behind the wheels of a car. The supervene of your moods when driving is touched upon with singular focus on the danger posed by road rage and the avoidance of use of hand signals that are by all means; of course not endorsed in the driving manuals.

Driver's education classes offer exquisite tools for studying all there is to know about driving in general. They are run by professional who know everything there is needed to know to pass the test and make you a good driver beyond it. With driver's ed you will by all means; of course come to be a safer driver for your sake and that of the other drivers in the roads.

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Texas Driver's Safety Course - Traffic Safety Problem - Part 2 (Spanish)

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We had a good read. For the benefit of yourself. Be sure to read to the end. I want you to get good knowledge from Texas Driver Safety Course Online .This video shows the major traffic safety problems that have affected drivers. If you need to take a defensive driving class, take it all online. For more information and to register now please visit: www.DMVGuideOnline.comI hope you obtain new knowledge about Texas Driver Safety Course Online . Where you possibly can offer easy use in your life. And just remember, your reaction is Texas Driver Safety Course Online .View Related articles related to Texas Driver Safety Course Online . I Roll below. I have recommended my friends to assist share the Facebook Twitter Like Tweet. Can you share Texas Driver's Safety Course - Traffic Safety Problem - Part 2 (Spanish).

5 Temmuz 2012 Perşembe

Wednesday Weirdness: Avocado Sashimi

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Turns out it's a thing.
I don't know about you, but when I think "interesting," I think "the history of the avocado in Japanese cuisine."

It may surprise you to learn that avocado is not native to Japan. It actually entered Japanese cuisine via California, where transplanted Japanese sushi chefs were looking for a cheap, palatable alternative to toro, or fatty tuna belly.

The Japanese, it turns out, are obsessed with toro, thanks to its rich, fatty flavor and creamy texture. But if you don't mind dropping the tuna-ish taste of toro, avocado is actually a decent approximation. Savvy chefs didn't have to think too hard about swapping out an expensive fish product with little or no distribution in the US for something that, in California, literally grows on trees. Everywhere.

Hence the California roll was born and subsequently transplanted back to Japan, where it remains the only staple of American sushi you can regularly find on the menu. Before long, the avocado took off on its own, popping up in a variety of sushi and non-sushi dishes. These days, reasonably priced avocados can be found in most grocery stores. In fact, they're typically cheaper than they are in the eastern US, and for us at least they've become an important staple as we've tried to trim our consumption of meat.

And avocado sashimi may be the single easiest recipe in the world.

  1. Slice an avocado or two.
  2. Squeeze a lemon wedge over top.
  3. Dip in soy sauce with wasabi to taste.

 Delicious and nutritions.

Today's Lessonアボカドã�•ã�—ã�¿ã‚’ã�—ã�¾ã�™。a-bo-ka-do sa-shi-mi shi-ma-suavocado sashimi make(I) make avocado sashimi.

Little update

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Justin and I are finishing our time here in Oz and are off to New Zealand tonight. Some Australia highlights:

- snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, at which I totally saw a shark
- holding a koala and feeding a wallaby at the zoo in Kuranda, at which we also learned that wombats have square poop,
- visiting two bat sanctuaries, taking time at the second to play fetch and pet the owner's adorable dogs,
- befriending the German proprietess if an Aboriginal art store, from which we purchased a drawing of Jesus Birds,
- watching two Ayers Rock sunrises, two Ayers Rock sunsets, and one Ayers Rock stargazing session, at which we asked so many dorky questions that we were invited to be test guests on a new star tour the next night,
- taking a bushtucker tour, at which we consumed a plant which tastes kike salted kale chips,
- viewing the Sydney Harbor Bridge, which we did not climb, and the Sydney Opera House, which we diid not enter
- seeing the Pixar movie Brave after purchasing tickets online and presenting a bar code on my phone (never thought that would work)
- visiting too many museums, including the National Maritime Museum, Museum of Sydney, Cairns Historical Society museum, Rocks Museum, and airport historical galleries,
- discovering that crocodile is kind of chewy, emu is like chicken crossed with venison, and kangaroo is freaking delicious,
- drinking excessive amounts of Flat Whites, Austalian coffee with hot milk but not foamy like a latte, sticking to decaf
- coming in third at the hostel's trivia night, behind teams of at least 5 people (what country did the black swan come from? What building grows six inches in summer? WHAT COLOR IS A GRASSHOPPER'S BLOOD??)
- visiting my sister's baby blog 46 times

And a lot more! Wish us safe travels and great skiing in New Zealand, and we will see a lot of you soon!

Angkor Day 4: Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, & Preah Khan

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(Nana and I are traveling until July 7, but we've put a couple posts in the pipeline to tide you over until then.)


Also known as: the anti-climax.

On the advice of Lonely Planet, Nana and I saved Angkor Wat for our last day of touring . . . but on the advice of our flagging legs and wobbly stomachs, we did Angkor Wat in the morning and left some less important temples for the afternoon.

And a good thing, too: while we had planned about six small temples for our last hurrah, we only made it through three before giving up and heading back to the hotel. Taken together, they were a good farewell to the temples of Angkor, covering all the major temple styles: the temple mountain of Pre Rup, the (former) island temple of East Mebon, and the forest ruins of Ta Som & Preah Khan.

Pre Rup


Pre Rup was dedicated to Shiva in the 960s as the state temple of Rajendravarman II. It is a classic temple mountain, with the addition of a few galleries more typical of later temple pyramids like Angkor Wat.




It's every bit as steep as it looks.

Just ask Nana!

Pre Rup has been the site of much conservation, but little restoration. That's another way of saying there aren't any trees, but a lot of the towers are still in bad shape.

A carved false door atop Pre Rup.

An apsara who has seen better days.

You can see East Mebon from the top of Pre Rup - it's only a few hundred yards due north.

You can also faintly make out the central tower of Angkor Wat on a clear day. Unfortunately, in the tropics, "clear" also means "blisteringly hot."

Getting down without falling is almost as tough as getting up without passing out.





East Mebon

East Mebon was dedicated to Shiva in the 950s by Rajendravarman II. It used to be an island temple in the center of the East Baray reservoir, but the reservoir has since been drained.





If it looks a lot like Pre Rup, that should be no surprise: built by the same guy, only a decade apart. But the shorter East Mebon, being less exposed, is in significantly better shape.


Each corner is guarded by a friendly lichen-encrusted elephant.

These apsara were carved directly into the brick, then overlaid with stucco. Of course, the stucco has long since fallen off.

A well-preserved lintel depicting Indra.

A restored lintel of Garuda atop a decorative false door.




Ta Som & Preah Khan


Ta Som & Preah Khan are two of the smaller Angkor Thom temples commissioned by Jayavarman VII, who is most famous for the face-towers of the Bayon.
This guy. You remember him.

Both temples date to the 12th century, and both are largely deserted, as the nearby Bayon itself draws off most of the crowds. In addition, both exhibit Jayavarman II's chaotic blend of Buddhism and Hinduism: while the central sanctuaries of each temple were Buddhist, each includes satellite shrines and temples to various Hindu deities.

I won't really bother to differentiate here, partly because I wasn't careful about keeping track of the photographs. In any case, the overall impression is the same: woods and ruins, a lot like the larger and more famous Ta Prohm.





The balustrade along the causeway into Preah Khan. AKA, more Churning of the Sea of Milk!

More Garuda + Naga = Buddhist Hindu Happy Friendly Fun Time!

More huge trees growing out of walls!

More!

MORE!

More Nana looking through ruined doorways!

More atmospheric close ups!

More detail on obscure bas relief carvings than you ever thought you would read in your life!