I finally saw a Phillies game in their new park on Saturday. Not only that, but it was a big game. The Phillies were playing the Reds who happen to be the team holding on to the NL Wild Card. The Phillies were only two games back, so winning Saturday and Sunday would’ve brought them to a tie for the Wild Card. Unfortunately, the Phils lost after Tom Gordon gave up three runs late and a 9th inning rally fizzled with Howard at the plate.

The park is beautiful and our seats were pretty good. Here’s the view from our seats in left (click the picture for a larger version):

The park has good food, though we didn’t sample any of it. My favorite was the Peace A Pizza located in center:

Another first that night, Heidi actually scored (most of) the ballgame:

I was surprised when she asked for the scorecard, but she did a good job. Although, she seemed really fixated on knowing all the players’ first names.

Saw this on Kotkke and on Kareem’s blog so I decided to join in the fun. Here’s a list of all the cities where I spent at least one night during 2005. Cities with an asterisk are cities with 2 or more non-consecutive nights. It’s in roughly chronological order.

West Hartford, CT*
Bensalem, PA*
Boulder City, NV
Grand Canyon, AZ
Bryce, UT
Springdale, UT
Zion Canyon National Park, UT
Las Vegas, NV
Southwest Harbor, ME
Williamstown, MA
Bar Harbor, ME
San Francisco, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Cheektowaga, NY

2005 was a pretty blah travel year… I didn’t leave the country except for a day trip or two to Canada. Paying for a roof and acting as if we’re saving for a wedding would do that, I guess.

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of travel correspondence from Dan as he travels around southeast Asia. Click the “continued” link to read the full message.)

July 20, 2005

Greetings from Ninh Binh!

I’m fine. I’m not hurt. It’s only a scar. Turns out I was a bit mistaken about Vientiane being boring. After signing off last time, I went to the local Hash House Harriers hash. If you don’t know what this is, google Hash House Harriers. Their tagline is “A drinking club with a running problem,” which we adopted for the Grizzlies: “a drinking team with an ice hockey problem.” To be honest, I didn’t know how much running to expect, but I assumed that I could bow out if (when) I ran out of gas.

Most of you have heard my Urban Challenge stories…limping up hills, sprinting through traffic, celebrating with gusto. The Vientiane Hash House Harriers put those experiences to shame! First I had to find them. They placed an ad in the local English language paper, pointing to a bakery where they post their starting point weekly. I found the bakery still hungover, haggling with songthaew drivers (songthaews are taxis made from open-bed pickup trucks) for a ride, and finally walking over new blacktop that glistened in the heat, unable to dry. That pointed me to a bar near where I started. Time to walk.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of travel correspondence from Dan as he travels around southeast Asia. Click the “continued” link to read the full message.)

July 18, 2005

Greetings from Vientiane, capital of Laos!

A quick email…how could I forget the best part of my big day at the waterfall? We got to see Phet, the rescued tiger. She’s beautiful. A few of us pooled money for some buffalo meat for her. I figured it just a donation. Instead, Nick handed me a bunch of buffalo meat and said to feed her from the highest point in the cage. Yes, I fed a tiger by hand. Yes, there are pictures. Yes, I still have all ten fingers. And never one to miss an opportunity, with one feeding, I brought my hand down, out of the cage, then patted her paw which was resting on the cage. Big, huge paw, with claws curling over the bar. Phet was absolutely beautiful.

Many more stories, of course, but I need to find some people and go see the Vertical Runway. It’s a Lao monument to war heroes, and it got the nickname because it was built with some concrete donated by Americans *concrete which was supposed to rebuild the airport after the war*.

Onwards. I’ll be on the road tomorrow, with a homestay in a small town, followed by a quick stop in Ninh Binh, Vietnam. A few solid days of driving, where I expect the highlight will be playing cards. So it’ll be a while before anything funny happens. Have a good week, and I’ll probably write you from Hanoi (check http://intrepidtravel.com/vsv for my schedule. Day 1 was Saturday July 9)

All the best, Dan

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of travel correspondence from Dan as he travels around southeast Asia. Click the “continued” link to read the full message.)

July 16, 2005

Greetings from Luang Prabang!

I apologize in advance for the awful use of local currency in this email, but you can all do the math. $1 = 40 Baht = 10,000 Kip. Also, this keyboard is terrible, but what do you expect for internet at 100 Kip per minute?

We left Chiang Khong by slow boat, and spent two days on the Mekong river. Smells are the dominant sense. The river is full of silt, and runs brown. The fragrance is a quarter of the smell of a farm. Rich earth, animals, waste. The hills loom high around us, and the mountains beyond that. Everything is lush and green. Square patches of slash-and-burn farm abound, each with its own farmhouse, and square patches of scrub brush show where farmers were years ago.

For our one night stop, we landed at Pak Beng. Here, I realized that we are in sync with some travelers we met in Chiang Khong. Marcus (23, UK, normal, remember?) and I were having dinner and drinks at a restaurant run by a Finnish man and a Thai woman in Chiang Khong when we met David, Eva, and Simone. David is Swiss, and the two girls are Austrian. Hell of a lot of fun. Chiang Khong works on an interesting system: slowness. People order dinner for a particular time, then return to eat. They had ordered dinner for 9 pm, so they went back, and we got a bunch of our friends from our guesthouse, wandering the streets with an open beer in my hand. Chiang Khong has no closing time. The Finn served us until we were falling over. At 3 am we staggered back (no beers in hand) and settled down for our 7 am wakeup call.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of travel correspondence from Dan as he travels around southeast Asia. Click the “continued” link to read the full message.)

July 12, 2005

Hello from Chiang Khong, home of the 650 pound catfish!

After a few drinks, I wander into an internet cafe. Nature calls, and I ask for the bathroom. In the back is the owner’s home. Pictures of family, a couch, a teakwood carved dog. And his own bathroom. Amazing. I’ve never seen hospitality like this. It was also my first full encounter with a country-style toilet, if you know what I mean.

(You don’t? A country-style, or squat, toilet is a toilet bowl embedded in the ground, with no seat, but some porcelain footrests on each side. You drop your pants and – hope that you don’t dip the pants in the toilet – pray that your cheapo sandals have enough grip to keep you from slipping and landing in the bowl – wish that your knees had a few less miles on them

To a man, pissing in a hole is quite natural. My full experience tonight was much more difficult. Conversely, my female tour guide remarked that she prefers squatting over a country-style toilet to squatting over a Western toilet.)

Today was a transit day, where I slept in a van while we drove across some remarkable terrain. Northern Thailand has many of these abrupt hills, rocketing up from the valley floors, and covered in jungle scrub. The hills and mountains are amazing.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of travel correspondence from Dan as he travels around southeast Asia. Click the “continued” link to read the full message.)

July 11, 2005

Greetings from Chiang Mai!

So far, I’ve lost a bottle of Purel and my ‘Oakey’ sunglasses. I’ve also been swindled three times for a total of $2. Life is very good here. We took the overnight train from Bangkok last night, and I’ve had a very active day including elephants and riverboats, so pardon me if I ramble a bit.

So the group assembled Saturday night, I think, well it was some night. Call it Day 1. That’s all we call it. Twelve travelers, 4 men and 8 women. Our leader, Nick, posted some authoritative yet friendly signs and met us in the lobby, where we learned that Nick is a wee British lass. Five-three. Perky at all hours. A good influence on me, as I’m not terribly good in the mornings. Former roommates and bosses are getting this email and simultaneously rolling their eyes at my antics.

Jet lag has been good to me, as I no longer care what time it is. Everything is relative. Last night, on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, I got tired and went to sleep. I think it was 10 pm. I woke up completely refreshed to hear Marcus (male, British, 23, normal) holding court with some ladies. I popped up for some breakfast conversation only to find that it was 1 am. Sleep is a scarce commodity, I returned to my bunk.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of travel correspondence from Dan as he travels around southeast Asia. Click the “continued” link to read the full message.)

July 9, 2005

Hello from Bangkok!

Over here, a few people have expressed sympathy to me for London bombings. They’ve also been oblivious to the difference between the United States and Britain. But onto the fun.

Last night, I sat ringside at the Muay Thai (kickboxing) matches. First row. All hail the mighty exchange rate. I was looking forward to hearing the chatter from the corner. But I’m dumb…they’re all speaking Thai! Each fighter’s friends/team had a small corral right next to me where they could cheer from the good seats. I saw the Thai Jaime Carrillo, but didn’t get my camera out in time.
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Regular readers of FatMixx know that contributor Dan (aka dmr) is traveling around southeast Asia right now. He’s been emailing regular travel updates that have been funny, insightful, and entertaining to read. He’s graciously given me permission to repost them here. Since he’s about to return, rather than flood the blog with messages, I’m going to stagger them out over the next couple of weeks.

The first full one will come tomorrow morning, but you can click below to read his “I’ve arrived” email.
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On Wednesday, I’m off to Asia for five weeks. I have never traveled so far, so long, or so rough. I’ll occasionally find an internet cafe to post some thoughts, but Fatmixx felt like the wrong place (I don’t know all of you, messages too long, other people want to hear the same stuff) so I’ve decided to put up a simple email list. Click here to sign up This’ll save anyone from BS “ooh, that was neat” replies.

The Great Indochina Overland tour is run by Intrepid Travel, who my sister used in Australia and Thailand a few years ago. Intrepid is also recommended by some of my future classmates.

Some Thai fishermen have given me the ultimate conversation piece for my trip. In Chiang Khong (Day 4 of my trip) villagers landed a 646-pound catfish! They pulled it out of the Mekong River (Days 5-6) where I will no longer be dangling my toes.

Please sign up for the mailing list if you’re interested in my silly stories, odd observations, and frequent naive blunders. My messages will be honest and likely profane. I hope you’re a little interested.

luckily the “Future Mrs. Joshua Turnof” is still available (aka Natalie Portman).

Well, first of all, thank you everyone who emailed me before this vacation. It was a great time. I always enjoy playing golf, and this trip was no diferent. 5 days of golf, and only one sunburn. Not bad.

Plus, I even won all of my match play events. This year was Ryder Cup style, and my team won all 3 of matches I was involved in.

Most importantly, however, we got to go on the new Hulk ride at Universal Studios Island of Adventure, and um…Damn. It was awesome! I enjoy roller coasters, but this one was just incredible. It was really good. If you get the chance, go! NOW!

More on this later…hope all is well…

Just so’s you know.

This clearly needs more “research”

One more thing before I call it a night… one of the reasons that I haven’t posted too many photos up is that a lot of them came out like crap. Because of the bright sunlight and haze, a lot of the colors in the photos are washed out, overexposed, and pretty much bland. I have been putting off getting a neutral density filter or a polarizing filter for some time now and now, finally, am paying for it.

I’m going to have to sit down with Photoshop when I get back and see if I can tweak the color saturations to “recover” the color information. It’s going to be painful… We’ve taken over 2 hours of video and 400 pictures so far and both cameras are running without filters. Most things came out fine, honestly, but the affected pictures are the ones that I really wanted: the landscape shots and the panoramic views of the canyons and the surrounding landscape. Part of the beauty of both the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon is in the gorgeous colors of the rocks.

Couple of other notes: I was able to shoot a number of images “correctly” by manually mucking with the exposure levels and contrast levels on the camera. I mostly did that because I was worried about this particular problem and knew that without a filter I was taking a chance. What irks me, though, is that this problem seems to affect Sony cameras. When I went to New Zealand, the pictures from my sister’s camera (some HP camera we bought her on sale at Office Max, believe it or not) were invariably brighter and more vibrant. My Sony DSC-P50, on the other hand, pretty much sucked in terms of color warmth (I only had a UV filter on that). I now have a Sony DSC-P93 and the results are pretty much the same as before. Anything further away than 15 feet in bright sunlight ends up washed out and pale. I’ve been looking at other peoples’ Bryce Canyon photographs. Not too many washed out images there. Not that I don’t like my camera… it’s nice, compact, and works great for things you generally use a compact for. Close subjects, even if they’re in bright sunlight, come out great with good color representation. It just seems that distant subjects just get washed out more often than not, especially landscape shots.

So, I’m going to have to think hard in a few years when it comes time to get a digital SLR. Sony will likely have a cool entry in the space, but I’m going to have to be more thorough about my research into the CCD and the processing chip. I’ve been avoiding it for a while now, but it seems like it’s time to start the research. Granted, I’m using their “point-and-shoot” line, but seeing the images coming out of similarly priced cameras on Flickr and seeing my sister’s camera consistently outperform my old Sony… well, I think my expectations aren’t so unreasonable.

Until then, though, I guess I’ll need to order one or both of the Sony VF30NK 30mm Neutral Density Filter Kit and the Sony VF30CPKS Polarizing Filter Kit. Oh, that’s another annoying thing… Sony doesn’t take regular filters and nobody sells them. I went to Best Buy and tried to pick one up, no luck. Seems like I can get it at the Sony Style store or Amazon. None of these help me right now, so I’ll just need to be careful in Zion when I’m taking pictures.

Random thought: 400+ pictures, can you believe it? We’ve filled up two 512MB Memory Sticks so I’ve had to buy blank CDs, copy the images to my laptop and back them up onto CD so I can clear off one card. (granted, there are a lot of dupes where I took the same shot with different settings on the camera, but still…)

I’m working on a few things tonight in the hotel room, got bored and checked up on FatMixx. We’re taking it easy tonight after a ton of snow made hiking Bryce Canyon nearly impossible. Take a look:

We’re going to head out to see if it’s clear enough to do some stargazing. We’re at nearly 8000 ft right now and the park has points that are as high as 9100ft. Should be nice if it’s clear. We’ll have more about today’s activities when we’re on a faster connection, but Bryce Canyon is absolutely amazing. I can only imagine what it would be like to be inside some of the slot canyons. One of the risks of coming out here in winter is that trails get buried in a ton of snow. Of course, summer has its own risks with storms and flash floods, but at least you can simply wait out rain. Snow kinda sticks around.

Because of all the snow, we’re going to leave early tomorrow instead of trying to do a set of short hikes. We’re heading over to Zion National Park next. Reports from fellow travelers here in the hotel say no snow in that park. Thank goodness. Maybe we can even do the Angel’s Landing hike.

We have spotty Internet access here, but I’m pretty sure we’ve got nothing at the B&B we’re staying at near Zion. So, for real this time, see you when we get into Vegas.

And don’t worry, Heidi and I compiling a bigger post about the places we’ve stayed, the prices, the good and the bad of coming in later winter/early spring and everything else that might be of use to someone planning a vacation. We’re just too busy enjoying our vacation to write that all up.

That’s what I said when I first looked into the canyon. Don’t get me wrong, I, as well, was impressed by the free Internet access, but it was not the first, second, or third item on my list to tell about to folks.

Even though I’d seen 50,000 pictures of the grand Canyon, because I knew it had been carved by the Colorado River, I was still picturing this steep drop on one side, river, steep drop on the other side. I was not picturing many, many canyons, erosion upon erosion. The magnitude of the place is amazing. I think back to being in the Black Hills of South Dakota — a place I loved visiting — and seeing Mt. Rushmore — what a disappointment that was. Again, I’d seen so many pictures and replicas, but this was a very different experience.

I was only sad we did not get to see any coyotes, yet. We did see many ravens — Poe would be proud. We did do the hike Sujal described below — and where Sujal describes it as relatively easy, I am going to describe it as relatively difficult. (Relative being the key operative in both.) Clearly many, many people hike this trail, but it is not for those wildly afraid of heights, like me — walking down snow and ice covered switchbacks. As a rule, I usually try to avoid plummeting to my death. Alas, once we got past that, actually once we got about a mile into the canyon, I could have gone on for a long time. It was really beautiful. The depth is very deceptive. What looks like it could not possibly be that far away, is very far. One needs binoculars (or hawk-like eyes) to see the mini-hikers on the trails. Part of me expected to see hundreds of sheep grazing on green plateaus, but that would have been from seeing to many movies of Ireland or New Zealand. I also have to commend Sujal on his supportive and helpful “easing” me down the first switchbacks.

Going up gave us many opportunities to “stop and smell the roses” as it was a hell of a hike out of there. Hoo-boy, were we huffin’ and puffin’ — and not blowing anything down. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all with frequent breaks. I would do it again, particularly if someone carried me down those first few switchbacks, where perhaps not only the mules soiled the path.

The Hoover Dam was an earlier stop. It’s dang big as well, but I’m always more impressed with non-human created large views. It was interesting, and I could not stop wondering about the many workers who surely lost their lives on such a big project (one of my non-blood relatives died many years ago building the Grand Island Bridge).

Today we leave and head up to Bryce Canyon, my mama’s favorite.

Note to self: when hiking in what’s still officially winter, remember ice crampons.

I’m waiting for Heidi to get out of the shower, so I thought I would pass on the latest and greatest from our vacation. Today’s adventure was a 6-mile (round trip) hike down the South Kaibab Trail to Skeleton Point. I’ve never been down the South Kaibab, but it was suggested to us by a park ranger as a shorter version of the Plateau Point hike down the Bright Angel Trail. These two trails are by far the most popular at the Grand Canyon and they’re both well maintained and relatively easy. I’ve done the Plateau Point hike, but that’s 12 miles and involves 3100ft of elevation change. The Skeleton Point hike, on the other hand is shorter and only changes elevation by 2100 ft. Nothing to sneeze at for an out-of-shape pair of hikers like us, but far easier. In fact, the only negative is that it’s a bit steeper.

The only bad thing today was that the snow yesterday (oh yeah, it snowed here last night) created some pretty icy stretches at the top. We didn’t have ice crampons and so spent part of the hike almost crab walking down the switchbacks. Once we got down into the canyon far enough (maybe after 45 minutes) no snow and no ice. Only the mule droppings were dangers on the trail after that.

I’ll have photos up soon. I need to rest and get showered and stuff. We might not have Internet access in the next hotel, so this might be the last time you hear from me for a bit. It’s funny… the last time I came here, there was no digital or free analog cell coverage and no Internet access. Now, not only do I have GSM cell coverage, I have GPRS coverage as well. Also, Best Western is now offering free Internet access in all their hotels in North America (except Mexico). Wireless in the common areas and wired here in the rooms. Not bad.

It seems like a trend. The Microtel that we stayed at in Buffalo also offered free wireless access in all their rooms. That was for $35 a night or so, by the way, so it’s not just the mid-tier of places like the Best Western. I wonder what they’re replacing the revenue with, though, because folks like me would happily pay for one night of Internet access for $7 or $12 or whatever they used to charge. I wonder if the W or the Marriott’s of the world are doing the same thing? I haven’t stayed in one recently. Anyone know?

If you’re ever planning to do a vacation that involves a National Park, consider getting the National Parks Pass. We just found out today that the pass we bought when we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park will end up paying for itself on this trip. Granted, we knew that we were planning on coming out here or going to St. Thomas (which has a National Park). The pass cost us around $50 and paid for Rocky Mountain National Park and here at the Canyon, and will also pay for our entrance to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon later this trip (both are around $20). We just found out today that it also lets us into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where we can check out the lake there. That’s another $10 saved right there.

South rim near sunset.

We’re getting ready to crash at the Best Western Lighthouse Inn in sleepy Boulder City, NV. Our vacation is pretty much a road trip starting in Vegas heading out to a couple of the local National Parks. First stop tomorrow is the Hoover Dam and then the Grand Canyon.

It snowed this morning at home, by the way, so it’s a pretty nice transition: this morning, we were shoveling and now, Heidi is asking me to turn up the AC. It is supposed to rain all week off and on, so we’ll see if the weather holds up, but right now it’s 70, clear, and gorgeous out. Even this close to Vegas, you can see way more stars than you can out on the east coast.

Thoughts

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, to those who sent me their well wishes on my safe return. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I’m not the best flier. I’m not saying I need to take medicine just to get me into the plane, I’m just saying that I get a bit nervous that SOMETHING will go wrong, or worse, I will have forgotten something uber-important, like a passport, my ticket or my accessory kit, even when I’ve checked everything about a thousand times. Whatever.

On this trip, however, I think I was suffering from something a little different. On my trips both to and from Israel, I reached the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Never was I so happy to stand in a customs line (of all places) to enter a country, and never was I so upset to see the “Welcome to Massachusetts” sign (especially when I saw the one below it said “Home of the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox”). No, this return trip was bittersweet. I was happy to be back, yet it was with a very heavy heart. I hadn’t been to Israel in 8.5 years, and while so much had changed, I felt completely at home. Never nervous. Never worried. Always excited. Happy. Comfortable. No, that’s not right. I don’t have the words to do justice to what I was feeling. One of the presenters referred to it as “returning home from your first semester away at college.” Cute, but a poor analogy. No, my friends, it wasn’t quite like that. Still, I could hardly believe nearly 9 years had gone by since I lived here.

This was from my hotel room porch. I arrived on Sunday afternoon (yes, I missed the Jets implode, as my defeatest self thought they would – two kicks in one minute.) After taking a shower, I spent about 25 or 30 minutes just sitting in a chair on the porch watching the water roll in on the shore.

Next door to the hotel, there was a gorgeous beach, where children were playing, old women were laughing, and everyone’s mind was far away from all of the troubles that were plainly evident to anyone who picked up a newspaper, watched the news or lived within the 20 miles to the south or the 35 to the east. In fact, I asked the taxi driver, security guard at the hotel, and a few shopkeepers and waitresses what they thought (and after laughing at my pathetic excuse for the Hebrew language – let this be a lesson, kids, practice your language BEFORE you get there. It will save you much laughter). For every person I asked, they all said the same thing, its not good, but its better than it was, and more importantly, it will get better. There was a genuine belief that the peace process had finally taken hold (of course, one of them said “peach process” but who am I to mock after I asked her to pass the screwdriver instead of cucumber?). In an interesting article, the International Herald-Tribune reported staggering numbers of Israelis and Palestinians not just want peace, but believe it will happen in their lifetimes. Something, as recently as 2 months ago, I was saying was never going to happen. My, how far we’ve come…

For as much as I refer to places in Israel as very traditional or industrial, with only a passing interest in popular culture from the rest of the world, there’s no getting around it. Sometimes, there are phenomena too strong to pass up on (that’s Hilary Duff from her POS movie and Harry Potter made out of Legos – I also have pictures of other movie posters, McDonalds, Boston Red Sox paraphernalia and a Britney Spears concert DVD too)

Now, the original reason that I was there was for a conference on informal education, and while the conference was incredible, I think my 24 hours in Jerusalem hit me the hardest. I had the chance to visit with some of the participants of the program I myself participated in 10 years ago, Nativ. While where they lived was completely different, and the level of freedom they were given was curbed a bit by the violence of the last 10 years, the students didn’t seem at all daunted. They were happy to be there. In love with the land, with the program, with their lives there, and it brought back a flood of memories. Memories of my life on kibbutz, walking the streets of Jerusalem, shopping in this huge open air market, looking out from a useless windmill at the Mount of Olives (created by a Quixotic poet originally from Austria) and standing on the Tayelet (a lookout point on the outskirts of town).

Very rarely in this world have I found that words escape me (just ask anyone who knows me) and even more rarely, do pictures not properly convey what was seen. Someone once said, “History is just the retelling of someone else’s memories.” Ten years ago, I was a witness to history, when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated right in front of my eyes, and Shimon Peres signed the second Oslo Accord on television. While nothing quite so grand happened this time, I truly feel as if I witnessed history again. This time, though, I can only describe it as “history in the present” and leave it at that.

I leave you with this image, and I’m sorry if I rambled too much.