Using what you have for what you need

It is always fun to see how people innovate using what they have. On our trek, Asa would make so many amazing things out of bamboo. 

Such a long list of what can be made out of bamboo in the jungle without having to process it at all. 

Our guide, Asa, would sharpen his knife on a flat sandstone rock. 

Once his knife was sharp enough, he would chop off some old dried up bamboo to use to build a fire. He did this by cutting off peices, slamming it against the rock and splitting it. 

Then he made a "pot" by placing it in the fire full of water and a "lid" with banana leaves so that we could drink tea from leaves he gathered along our hike out if bamboo mugs he made. That's not all be cause then he made us bamboo spoons to eat our fried rice that was "packaged" in a banana leaf. 

Besides our immediate uses for bamboo many of the hill tribes used it for the side walls of their homes and used large leaves for the roofs. 

We learned that the large leaves must be replaced every 2 years to keep the water out. 

Another fun detail of the home in the Karen village was that it was off the ground. Drop some food in the floor? No problem, just sweep it through the crack in the floor and the chickens will eat it up. We had fun exploring which friends of ours might do well with that kind of cleaning style. 

Out of the jungle, there are other neat uses f things. A big issue are flies near food. Today we walked by some food stalls where we saw pompoms spinning over what appears like the motor of a fan suspended over the food. Great idea!! 

One thing I do want to take home is a cool tool used for shredding green papaya. Hopefully I find the store that sells that utensil :)

Maybe it will happen tonight as we are off to go to a cooking class. 

This just in- a special post

This is a notable post to mark Suzanne's adventures in street food. 

All great things and then.... Some insects

Props to Suzanne for adventurous eating. Apparently, the crickets taste the best. 

Hot springs and bicycles

Our original plan was to cycle to the hot springs today.  Then we met Sebastian from argentina who told us that Pai was the place to try a motorbike. I wasn't convinced as i have heard of too many injuries from motorcycles. That is, until we went to get one and all the motorcycles were rented out and we were back to our original plan. Ha!

Maybe another time :)

Back to plan A- we had an awesome ride,  soaked In some hot springs, and even watched people make hard boiled eggs in the upper pools (HOt!)

Tomorrow we head to the hills for a guided hike. 

Now we hope to enjoy find a massage place, have a beer and find some good food. 

Morning jog to pai

We had a great rest of the day exploring pai. It was nice to walk to the temple and see the sunset on our walk back into town. We stopped for a massage on the way back. Then, as we strolled back to the hotel for the night, we found that our street turned into a night market with many options of small portion sized thai food along the way. We ate our dinner picking up a $1 pad Thai, then a papaya salad, some quail eggs and some not so sweet sticky rice. 

With grand thoughts of going out to hear some music, we went back "home" to change and ended up heading right to bed. 

Up early, another morning run- off to the Buddha on the hill just past the temple. It was early enough that the low fog was still there helping create a nice quiet setting. With only one other person at the temple, the yogi in me surfaced and I was able to do some yoga before jogging back to town. What a perfect setting for a little morning adventure. 

Chiang Mai-pai

Awake early and unable to sleep, I rolled out of bed early for a run around the perimeter of the old city of Chiang Mai. 

Traffic was light and it was easy to navigate around the canal that surrounds the old city. Oncei returned we all had to get ready for our venture to pai. 

Pai is a touristy "backpacker" town ~3hours by bus from Chiang Mai. It was an adventurous van ride passing as our driver passed people on the windy two lane road through the hills. My eyes were glued to the road to avoid getting car sick and I felt as if I was in a video game. 

We arrived safely and quickly found a lovely place to stay. See the entrance below. 

Made it to chiang Mai.

Just a few photos from the night market. 

Day 2-it's tuk tuk time

This our first Full day on the road. I think we all got enough sleep on our lumpy beds and were ready to roll. 

Our goal today was toget out f the center of town. We ended up checking out some ruins called wiang kum kam that were discovered in the mid 80s. It was an area that had been flooded for many years causing people to leave the settlement. It had been redeveloped  and people had been living in top of the ruins. Our tuk tuk ride out there was just as interesting as the ruins.  We got back to Chiang Mai and were happy to explore one of the temples and then find some awesome Thai food. 

We found some stores, some snacks and made our way back to the hotel. 

Arrived Bangkok-one more flight to china Mai

We made it safely to Bangkok. 

One more flight to Chang Mai

Had our first bout of yummy Thai food at the airport. 

And a beer

On our way

After some fun planning meetings lots of emails back and forth, Suzanne, Katie, and I are starting  our trip to thailand. 

Suzanne had special letters on her boarding pass eh in sent her straight to a security inspection. 

Katie and I made it through the line slowly while Suzanne still had her one to one with the security officer. 

We start to relax, finish up some last minute emails and texts and grab a drink while we wait for our boarding time. At that point we hear Suzanne's name over the Loud speaker lettif her know she has a message. Yup- they want to make sure she was extra double checked at security. 

Not sure what kind of list she is on. 

1/8 now I'm really heading home

I am do lucky to have been able to get my flights to and from Europe on miles! I learned more in the process with the reminder to get tickets earlier than later. 

But also, that London heathrow charges a heap of taxes and no one wants to have to fly through there if they don't need. 

So, lucky for me, there was a flight on a super saver miles fare (only 20,000) direct Berlin to JFK them to sfo. Miles allowed me to stopover for free in new York which allowed me to visit my longtime friend Lucia. 

So all that to say that it was great to meet her little girl and hang out for a while. Because the only available direct flight was out of JFK, I am in transit from cedar knolls new jersey to JFK. 

I took the nj transit to the long island rail to the AirTrain. 

On my way in, I opted for the subway. I always love to spend time in NYC but this time, I just enjoyed the subway and the train. And, it's ok because I had great pizza in jersey. 

So, early this morning, I head out. I will almost have had a full day of activity by the time I get back home at noon. 

I might even go into work.  Lucky for me I have a slim/not loaded schedule for getting back to work. 

As I get ready to head back, I checked the weather. Feeling lucky that the bay area is pretty nice! I looked and Portland and saw this

I'm glad my sister has always liked rain. Though, that was growing up in San Diego. :) and yup...i got an early start!

I think I was pretty well equipped for this trip. I packed pretty well. 

so, it's always helpful to lift off the things that were most helpful along the way to use for the next trip.... And what I might have added

Helpful items and trip prep:

1 called credit cards to tell them I was going away

2. Brought earring making kit-good for having something small yet creative to do (I even had to use the pliers along the way)

3. Stuffable puffy

4.rain jacket

5. Second lightweight jacket/windbreaker

6. Flip flops

7. Camera

8. Some energy bars just In case

9.sunglasses

10. Cheap distance glasses

11. A pair of bike shorts

12. Tights and skirt

13. Inflatable sky mall pillow

14. Spork

Next time I might also:

1: check on getting phone coverage for the duration of my trip- I don't think I saw one public pay phone in Berlin!

2: get and awesome folding bike :) or breakaway bike and bring it with??????

3. Bring a money belt?

4. Orthotics/super feet 

5. Bring a small selection of tampons so I have options when I need them

6. If checking a bag: Swiss army knife

Headed back

I had an adventure this morning biking I to Berlin to go to the reichstag dome. It's the parliament building in Berlin that they have re built after the war. 

I had thought it would be a great thing to get up high and see Berlin but it was hardto see much of the city. It was a cool audioguide that touched on some information.  It was well done as you walked through the moder dome at the top though the views were hard to see through the dew on the windows. 

Ilmore than anything, the history of this country is fascinating. 

So much to learn and remember. Such a tough history with wwII and then the splitting of east and west Germany. 

Sheesh. The photos at the reichstag were impactful showing demonstrations of thousands of people. 

There is lots of construction happening in the downtown area making it challenging to maneuver on my bike. You also see this water piping above ground that Ivy had pointed out to me. 

They painted it pink and blue. It looks cool but is hard to really capture in these photos. 

I returned my bike missed saying bye to one of my awesome hosts and headed for the airport. 

A photo taken from my subway train as I leave the city. So much change still happening here, lots of ingenuity!

Getting ready.

Ok. Now it's really getting to be

Time to go home with a stopover in NYC. 

Berlin was an amazing surprise stop AlonG the way. 

Such a cool city. I saw old friends and made new ones. Enjoyed see the new developments of fredrichshain, a neighborhood in eastern Berlin. New businesses cute shops people being creative.  My hosts bought some new records. Here one is drying on this great chair after a bath. 

Many posts later

None of my posts have been saved. They got deleted. I probably won't write it up again except that leaving Venice felt like I was heading back to reality. 

Though the exciting part was that the next stop is Berlin. 

What a contrast!!!

I would love to write more... Here I am staying in east Berlin. 

Some photos of doors nearby. All right next to each other right next to a bilingual Spanish/German school and next to a super nice breakfast cafe. Such contrasts.  

Leaving Venice- this post re appeared

Yup  i wrotr a post it got delteted so this is my rewrite which seemed to have been deleted. Then, just now, it reappeared. It was unfinished but here it is. 

 As I rode on the bus to the airport from Venice I wrote a little entry. It disappeared so I write the same thing with memory of how I was feeling. 

I'm trying to be good at knowing how I feel about something and talk about it at that point. I had some difficulty with this communication this past year and I'm working on getting much better at it. 

There is a long strip of land leaving Venice. Surrounded by water on both sides.  It is used for transit in and out of the city by land. 

Just train track and road side by side. Water all around. 

I feel like life in Venice isn't totally real. Leaving on this strip makes me feel like I am headed to real life. 

Venice 1/1 and 1/2

Venice: ridiculously touristy and amazing at the same time. Quiet and beautiful, picturesque and charming. 

Ashlyn and found a hotel on booking.com. We had no idea what we were in for and we found quite a treat. 

It turns out it was a quirky little place in a great location. Around the corner from the Guggenheim gallery and near cute artsy little shops, our place was on a quiet little street. It was close to la academia, making it easy to find with signs throughout town, but far enough from the busy parts of town that it wasn't a mob scene. 

Beyond all the cool things in Venice: st marks square and basilica, the amazing Guggenheim collection, and wonderful gelato, just getting lost in the streets is quite entertaining. 

Here are some photos that I snapped along the way with this smaatphone. 

From the Guggenheim gallery. 

Ashlyn getting entangled with a Chillida sculpture. It's tough for her to stay away from those basque men. 

A fruit stand on a boat. 

Low light blurry pic but worth keeping. 

More chillida

, views from the Guggenheim gallery, and more shoes.

 Sadly, this store was closed, otherwise I might have been so very tempted to get these. 

1/1 happy new year! 2014

Up early, Ashlyn and I went running to get ourselves into town. All hotels were pricey so we stayed at one outside of town. We made up for the low cost in cab rides to get there :(

It made for a great reason to go for a new years day run. 

Arriving the center of town, we were awestruck by the main cathedral. It was beautiful with the new years day service and the beautiful organ music in the cathedral in Padua. 

A big breakfast and from there we were off to the train station to head to Venice. Whirlwind travel to scratch just the surface. 

No Internet in Venice so here are just some photos.