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.

India for ten days, starting today. I have weekends and evenings free. What to do?

Bombay 4 days
Delhi 4 days
Agra day trip
Jaipur 1 day

Suggestions welcome now. The clock is ticking.

(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 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.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

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.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)