The Simple(r) Life

Photos: A summer roadie

laina333 — Sat, 6 Aug 2011 09:01:00 GMT

a trip through the west, midwest and the tropics

Home has four wheels and they go round and round

laina333 — Sat, 6 Aug 2011 07:55:00 GMT

When I heard that wolf howl right by camp, it was magical. I really can't even describe how amazing it was, it felt like I was part of this world again. So many times I think we are sucked out of the very place we live, it feels more artificial than incredible. But that, that snapped me back to this kind of truer, deeper reality. Kyle said he'd heard wolves growing up, camping in the northwoods. I don't think it had quite the same effect on him as it did me, he was hoping for the bear. Plus, I can't say that the hair on the back of my neck didn't stand up a little at first, I think he was probably saying that so I wouldn't freak out. But for some reason I wasn't scared at all, just at peace.

Summer has been a whorl wind tour of some of the most amazing parts of this country, most I have never seen. And although living out of a car going on five months now does have its downfalls once in a while, it is also pretty sweet! We left the Mojave in June with really no definite plans except one music festival in the Rockies and an idea to head east towards water and trees (hitting Zion and the Grand Canyon on our way of course, it wouldn't be a proper road trip without these friends). Nothing disappointed. Amazing bluegrass in Telluride, time with family and friends in Colorado, driving to Wisconsin where the cheese curds are delicious! The people definitley have a overall kind energy and they love summer. Aapparently its the best thing ever after, what I'm told are, pretty crappy winters. We floated rivers on inner tubes, stubling across a big party in the middle of the water, jumped on boats, went to the biggest water park in world and generally just tried to escape the humidity and the mosquitoes.

Headed north towards Canada, dipping toes in Lake Superior and relishing the beauty and solitude of the Boundary Waters. This trip was so amazing and one I hope to do again and again. There aren't many places where you travel miles and miles through a maze of rivers, lakes and islands. Where Loons glide by, wild blue berries go from plant to mouth, you may see no one for days and wolves prevail! Eating fresh caught (by Kyle!) northern pike fish burritos and staring, mouth agape in awe, at the unreal colors of the setting sun. In love with this place. Our boat was pretty heavy though and it made the portadges a little strenous. I think next time it will be wise to invest in a lightweight boat...

In Florida now, floating in the warm blue waters of the Gulf. I had no idea how beautiful it was here, always just thought it was for the old people, no offense. Took an air boat through the Everglades, saying hello to some personable and pretty alligators. Kayaking through mangroves tunnels and meeting more of Kyle's friends and family while checking out Sarasota's food and drink culture. The sea food! So good. Watching shark week when we swim in the ocean everyday...not good:)

Heading to Ohio next for the annual get together, which is always a highlight. Then back to work in the Mojave in September. Man time flies! May be looking forward to a real home and bed for winter. But you never know when those wheels will start to role! It really is such an important way for me to reconnect with my world and fall in love with it all over again. Here's some photos of the crazily different stops we've made...hope summer has been full of adventures for all!

Gallery: Bariloche

laina333 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:56:00 GMT

A few pictures my frind took

Cake Batter

laina333 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:03:00 GMT

If there is one universal rule in travel it would be don´t get robbed by cake batter. You may think this is a joke, or perhaps I´m extremely bored on a 24 hour bus ride to Bariloche, but I must inform you it is not (although I am). As a matter of fact...don´t get robbed by any edible substance; mayo, ketchup (stains), butter, milk, eggs (stinky!). You get the point. Well anyway, I broke this most cherished, well known and unspoken rule and was robbed at cake point at approximately 9:00am on a beautiful wednesday morning, in a gorgeous Argentinian town, on a street with other people, 10 minutes after arriving at the bus station. Not my proudest moment nor one I ever saw coming. As I look back on what truly was an extremely well orchestrated heist by 4 individuals, I can still not figure out how they planned it so well...it worked like a charm. Their goal; 1: get us to take our own bags off of our person, 2: distract while now said bag was placed between a wall, my friend and I, 3: and finally (and surely the hardest), pretending to be courteous and sympathetic strangers to two trusting foreigners. This brings me to the real rule of travel, that breaks my heart, but you hear time and time again...trust no one. I hate this rule, this rule stinks. I much prefer just dodging cake batter! But it is true, with many exceptions of course. All I can do is learn from this experience, that you do not have to close up and be afraid, but don´t let anyone else take control of a situation you are in, and trust your gut. I would say I have a pretty good intuition about things and I did feel something going wrong, even when I stepped off the bus that day, but for some reason, this sweet argentinian woman was able to make me trust her enough to take everything from me. Til the very end she played the perfect character, a real one that you wouldn´t be surprised to meet here in Argentina, very sweet, very kind face. As my friend (and savior!) Jenna told me later, "this will never happen to you again, because now you know". I know she is right, I will never let someone rob me with an edible substance again. I have heard so many stories of other travellers about things like this happening to them in all knids of ways, most are surprised to know this has never happened to me before with all my travel. But never robbed again in general, I don´t know, who does!? There are some incredible tricks out there, some great creativity. I am such a lucky person because although almost everything of value I had was taken, my parents, Jenna, other Argentinians and other travellers have been so incredible to me. Which brings me to the truest rule, the golden rule of travel, pay it forward. You get in a tough spot, people help you through it, no questions asked. And someday, you will meet someone who is going through the same things, with not even a centavo to their name and I will be ready and willing to help in any way I can. With the help of my incredibly patient, understanding and willing parents, the US embassy in Buenos Aires ($100 dollars later...don´t get your passport stolen), DHL and Western Union, I am heading to Patagonia to continue the route I had planned. This is why I am here, to see this beautiful country and land. Overnight Buenos Aires faded into flat grass and shrubland as far as the eye could see, and then spectacular mountains and lakes appeared like something from a fantasy movie. The pictures would be phenomenal, but being here in this moment is the most important. Disposible cameras may be my best option, and an oxymoron to my previous situation, but you go with the flow and enjoy the ride. And maybe someday I´ll have better luck keeping Nikons around! All I know for sure, is that for my next birthday I´m definitley not having cake!

You get so far, so fast

laina333 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:35:00 GMT

well, here i am. south america, and more specifically Argentina, Cordoba, Argentina. The second largest city in the country and home to 7 colleges, some of the best architecture in the country, and that much closer to la tierra del vino and Patagonia. It has been an incredible two weeks so far, first sharing time in Peru and Chile with good friends and now to be in this place I have wanted to go for so long is just so incredible. The buses from Lima to here have brought me through so many different ecosystems and ways of life. From our plush beginnings in Lima (thanks to Luke), to colonial Arequipa and beautiful Canyon del Colca with its condors and baby llamas, to Chile and the unspeakably incredible Atacama desert (but over priced San Pedro de Atacama), passed the border with Argentina to Salta and some good beer and hiking with new friends to Cordoba. Wow, how you can get so far so fast is just incredible, cheaply too...EEUU are you taking notes?? Just staying here for one night because, well frankly, i really want to get to wine country and just COUNTRY! Will download pictures soon, have tons already to share! Quickly, the 7up tasts like fruit loops, my last bus played three movies that all had one common theme:the end of the world (tanto), Argentines are as beautiful as they say, and the toilets do not flush the opposite direction:) hope all is well at home, pictures soon!

Gallery: Desert Rain

laina333 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:31:00 GMT

Gallery: Mojave desert

laina333 — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 03:42:00 GMT

Life in the desert

laina333 — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 03:33:00 GMT

I thought the easiest way to share some of the pictures from my Great Basin Institute work so far would be to add to my travel journal. So far, this job has been awesome and I can't believe I actually get paid for it! Pretty spectacular...the landscape and the tortoises themselves are simply beautiful. enjoy the pics, its spring in the Mojave!

Gallery: Bangkok

laina333 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:14:00 GMT

Gallery: Laos

laina333 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:48:00 GMT

Gallery: Northern Vietnam and Halong Bay

laina333 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:26:00 GMT

State Side

laina333 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:45:00 GMT

I wanted to add one last post to my "Southeast Asia" journal. Many more adventures were had from the time of my last post in Nha Trang, Vietnam and my return home but my days seemed to be on warp speed with no chance to write. Busing through Vietnam was a dream. I mean it really doesn't get better than public transportation. I even lucked out on the over night but from Nha Trang to Hoi An getting a sleeper bed next to a old Vietnamese women who liked to cuddle (I didn't mind). We crossed the border between the north and south parts of the country known as the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. Northern Vietnam seemed more colonial in architecture and also had amazing food! Including but not limited to White Roses and Pho, the first of which is only made in the city of Hoi An. The capitol of Hanoi was gorgeous. I spent time walking around the Old Quarter with its food stalls, guesthouses, shops, shops and shops. Here I booked a two day one night tour to Halong Bay, and I'm glad I did considering the complete chaos at the docks when we arrived. All the boats on the bay are junks, wooden ships that look like they came from the vikings or something. It was spectacular and, being the odd lone traveler out, I got my own room with a window that opened up right out into this world heritage site. This is getting long so I'll speed up. BUt i simply can't leave out my bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane, the Laos capitol. I had heard MANY horor stories anout this journey, most people I met flew to Laos. But being that I had no money, and that all the best adventures happen in route, I decided to chance it and bought my $22 ticket. It was worth every penny. From rice bags and boxes stacked on the floor, on the roof, on people, and under our feet, to the interesting music selection, to the hike up a hill because the bus couldn't make it, to the border crossing in Laos, everything was absolute madness. 24 hours, no aircon, and no food. FInally in Laos, only spent about four days here but it was BEAUTIFUL. I will return to explore more of this country. I simply did not have time to back track up to the north and then back to Northern Thailand before heading to BKK. Again got a local bus from Vientiane to Udon Thani and then from Udon Thani to Chang Mai (the capitol of the north). Doing it this way, piecing my own trip together) was soooo much cheaper than getting a tour bus from the Vientiane to Chang Mai. I spent less than $10 on my own and would have spe3nt over $30 to take a VIP bus. Pretty rediculous huh. Everything can be done cheaper if you get off the tourist trail obviously. I was only in Chang Mai for about 8 hours. After I learned about a family emergency I took a night bus back to BKK where I hung out for three days until my flight home. This was perhaps my favorite trip to Bangkok (this was my fourth stay in the city). I began to really enjoy it, to feel like it was my home away from home. I could get around easily on the sky train now knowing where good spots were and the weeked market near Mochit was to die for! I mean ANYTHING you could possibly think of was here. Animals, nurseries, restuarants, clothes, art galleries even a baby elephant. Street performers, school girls singing in uniform, jewelery stores, shoes stalls.

This has been an unimaginable, eye-opening, self assuring, independent, beautiful and unforegttable time in my life. I have found that this is my passion and that travelling alone is one of my ultimate highs. I have begun to think in a new way, not like I had a revelation, but I simply find my self appraoching situations in my head and in the world differently. I have also found that people are the world are very much same same but different. Beautiful.

....like a rolling stone

laina333 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:19:00 GMT

Vietnam is amazingly beautiful. diverse. sad and joyful at the same time. I've had a wonderful time here so far. making my way from saigon to the capitol of hanoi which is where I write now. it is very different landscape from the tropics of cambodia and thailand and the mountains really made me feel at home! I visited the war museum in saigon which nearly brought me to tears looking at the pictures but also a strange sense of hope because of the people here, they are so kind. if people can be kind after a tragedy like the war, then I think there really is reason to hope. I am heading to Halong bay and the northern provence of Sapa hopefully and then a bus to Laos and then northern thailand to eand my journey before i fly. it has gone so fast but i've seem so much, it al seems very unreal. Hope all is well and much love!

How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Gallery: VavavavavaVietnam!

laina333 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Contradictions in Cambodia

laina333 — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 20:16:00 GMT

What an interesting country, and so different from the month spent in Thailand! It has been incredible to be here and simply observe all of the culture spin around you like an ever-moving stream of dust and color. When I first crossed the border it was an great sense of overwhelming excitement. This is what I wanted, dirt roads, rural communties, water buffalo, but I could probably do without the constant haggling. It alright though, like I said, a smile will get you through politely and uneventfully. Spent four days in Siem Reap which was fantastic...the market in itself was a blast. Walking around all the vendors with their local fare, meat, vegetable, silk, even grasshoppers (which were very tasty). The town is relatively small, located just south of the ancient Khmer city of Angkor. I wish I could have included tons more pictures because the place was so incredible! I met some friends in the morning while sharing a tuk tuk and we explored for most of the day. each temple is so very different that its hard for me even to compare their beautiful and mysterious aspects. You really felt you were somewhere that had been extremely significant and magnificent. The bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn was, shall i say, a bit of a _____ show. While the road itself was great, our bus broke down in the middle of Cambodia. A drag but something that happens, and we got into town ok, just late, after another bus came to get us. Today we visited S-21 and The Killing Fields. Some heavy stuff, but important for understanding Cambodian life and history. these people seem so happy day to day and its a wonder how they do, it was so recent that the khmer rouge and the famine hit her as a whole. It seems the only citizens here who didn't experience these atrocities first hand are the children. I am leaving for saigon tomorrow. I wish I could stay much much longer here, but time seems to be running very fast, and I am really excited to spend some quality time in vietnam. I'll be moving up the coast by bus from Saigon to Hanoi, so many more stories to come:)

Gallery: Cambodia

laina333 — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 19:52:00 GMT

Happenings in route

laina333 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:35:00 GMT

Well, it has been quite a while since I updated this thing. Partly because I've been moving around so much. I also am sad to report that my memory card in my camera "corrupted" what ever that means, and I cannot access my pictures from the trip thus far. I have another card, so I will start taking pictures and posting them again soon (when I get out of bangkok and see some sites) and hopefully I can save my pictures when i get home...i really hope so. Anyway, besides these little bumps in the road I am still having an amazing time. It is so funny they call it the "land of smiles" because it is so true. you can accomplish pretty much anything here if you just smile when you do it, and poeple always seem to have a genuine grin on their face.

From the islands I headed back up north to bangkok where I had to apply for my vietnam visa. I didn't want to stay and wait for it here, so jumped a three hour bus west to Kanchanaburi which turned out to be a great idea. It was cheap, friendly, and we saw some awesome stuff. What the book calls "one of the worst tourist traps in history" was actually awesome anyway. We went to the tiger temple where monks have taken in orphaned tigers and you can go and actually touch them when they take them out for excercise midday. The pictures where great, really gonna try and save them. It was funny though, there was a cranky little monk there, yelling at everyone who did not follow temple protocol percisely. I thought it was funny.

The Bridge over the River Kwai and many war cemetaries are also in Kanchanaburi, so spent a day just exploring those and walking the bridge (also good photos, just gonna have to trust me). We hired a speed boat and got a cool perspective of the land from the water. There was a fun brother and sister duo that owned a bar in town we ended up befriending, spending most nights playing pool and hanging out with them. They took us to a disco/rock concert one night (we were definitley the only foreigners there) and while we were trying to get a cab home at the end of the night, the lead singers from the band picked us up and tok us back to the guesthouse, they were great! We did karaoke another night which was so fun, they put you in these private rooms with a couch, bathroom and TV and you just go to town, picking whatever songs you want. The thai songs are hard but pretty hilarious. Very fun. Leaving for cambodia tomorrow, pictures will definitley follow. I'm including one of out thai friends and the concert!

Of course i will get sick...

laina333 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:12:00 GMT

before you freak out, it isn't that bad and i'm takin it easy in a 400baht a night "resort" on railay to pamper myself and get better. I think it is just a minor bug, but there were a few hot and cold sleepless nights. Anyway...the biggest bummer is that i didn't get to climb (and I piad for it) because no strength could be summoned. Oh well, still had a great time with tiff and karl who I saw off today. Need to figure out my next plans which i'm not sure of as of yet. Before I leave for cambodia i need to spend four days in bangkok waiting for my vietnam visa (apparently i takes that long) so definitley heading that way soon. The beaches are beautiful but have drained my funds more than expected and i'm ready for a change of scenery (for now). Going to leave tomorrow probably for Krabi to make further travel arrangements.

the thai people and this country still make me laugh (randomly) most days. So many unusual sights and smells and sounds. I'll write more when feeling better...love

Gallery: Phi Phi and an memorable sunset

laina333 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:47:00 GMT

no roads and clear water

laina333 — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 20:45:00 GMT

Yes!!! Three airplanes, four taxis, two buses, 1 train and a boat later and I am in tropical paradise. the epidemy of paradise. I have been relaxing all day...just soaking in the sun and getting a first sunburn that signals the start of summer. There are no roads in phi phi and most locals travel by bicyle. There are a ton of europeans here and (belieive it or not) itlaian resturantes (could this place be more my style?) I'm planning a magnificent dinner for later this evening. Rented a bungalow close to the beach and am planning on visiting beaches around the area in the coming days. Met some nice english girls last night...mellow people are of abundance here. enjoy the pictures...lets all move here! love to all!