Back from Asia

I've been back from my trip for about a week now. I'm moving a million miles an hour trying to get my life sorta, still have a lot to do ... here is a short summary. You can also check out some picture of the wedding in Heidelberg, Abu Dhabi, Laos, and Thailand.

Highlights
Thailand - Philosophizing with a monk in Bangkok about the worlds problems, while sipping my favorite ‘Thai Ice Tea’

Laos - Seeing the hobby/passion of a monk that carved a fusion of Buddist/Hindu deities into stone.

Abu Dhabi - Staying in a nicest hotel I’ve EVER been in … I had a room on the 14th floor, corner suite complete with kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom, 2 TVs all with a view of the Cornish (Abu Dhabi’s ‘Central Park’) and the Marina

Lowlights
Laos - That’s a toss up. On my bus ride down a mountain from Luang Prabang to Vang Vien, I was inconvenienced more than once. I’m not sure if I was more annoyed with the first or second mud slide … where we had to wait for bull dozers to clear the path, or the road collapsing, impeding the buses … making us walk across to the buses on the otherside, or the guy with the rifle riding next to me the whole way there. The trip was suppose to take 6 hours … instead it took around 20 !!!

Abu Dhabi - If it wasn’t the heat, then it definately was the humidity that got to me. Both days I was there the temperature was over 110 F with humidity somewhere in the 90s !!!

Globe Trotter V3.0

This will be the last blog in a while … I’m off on a nice 17 day mini world tour. My itinerary goes something as follows

Aug 7th (Germany) My two good friends Erik and Ariane are getting married near Heidelberg, Germany. Afterwards I hope to enjoy a day in one of my favorite cities, Heidelberg, with Ingrid.
Aug 9th (UAE) I am off to Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates (on layover). On the return flight I get to spend the night and a good chance to explore the city.
Aug 10th (Thailand) I will finally arrive in Thailand and will travel directly to visit my friend Rod in Pattaya for his big birthday celebration.
Aug 16th (Laos?) Having seen my share of Thailand, I am hoping to peter off somewhere else for a week, I’m really hoping to spend a week of so in Laos.
Aug 21st (Germany) I want to get back to BKK a day or two before I leave to recover some of the pictures I lost. The last time I was in SE Asia, one of my bags was stolen. The dirty laundry made it home safe and sound but my souvenirs and photos didn’t L.

When I get back I'm sure I'll have a few blogs worth of stories.
PLUS I return to an internship with Jamba! and I get to move to a new apartment. Lots of exciting stuff. Til next time ...

My Purple Backpack

The past week has been a busy one for me. The core group I hang out with has started to feel were approaching the beginning of the end. We’ve been doing a lot of big group activities thinking ‘this is the last time we’re going to get together like this’. Aside from that, shortly after I return from my trip I have to find a new apartment. So I’ve been busy packing up all my stuff. Lastly, not only am I trying to iron out the details of my trip to Asia, but forefront on my mind is Erik and Ariane’s wedding.

I have some sad news to report. It looks like my favorite backpack ... the one I got for my high-school graduation ... the one that has been with me on EVERY trip I’ve ever made, is on its last leg. We’ve been together for over 10 years now, and I’m quite confident that this will be the last journey together. There is a fun song (I changed the lyrics a little) to fit the relationship I have with my backpack:

I got you when I was only 18,
the brightest purple backpack I’ve ever seen.
It was extra large so I wouldn't grow out,
"That's too big for you!" the other kids would shout.
But we stuck together, we didn't quit,
and now the children say, "What a perfect fit."
Remember that long bus trip when I needed a nap?,
I used you as a pillow on that Spanish lady's lap.
Oh what is it about you that makes me so jolly?,
Is it your fifty cotton or your fifty poly?

Oh purple backpack we been through a lot together
like that time I played in that shirts
and skins basketball game and I had to take you off
and throw you in the corner of the gym.
I was midway through the game when I saw you looking at me.
You were staring as if to say
"Chris, you suck at basketball, you dribble like a damn woman.
"I was so mad I challenged you to a game of one on one
and you know backpack, even though I beat you 11 to 9,
deep in my soul I know you missed those lay-ups on purpose.
You let me win and that why I'll forever feel this way.

I love you baaaaaackpack
One pocket baaaaaackpack
dip dip dip
baaaaaackpack
shama lama ding dong
baaaaaackpack.

-Adam Sandler (Remix of Red Hooded Sweatshirt)

Normally, me ‘n my purple backpack travel alone. I take only the essentials: passport and plane ticket, Lonely Planet book and one or two changes of clothes. My newest acquisition is a battery charger (to power my digital camera and electric toothbrush). I was amazed how expensive it was (60 euro), but I know it’ll be worth it and its high time I stop mooching off other peoples anyway. This trip I am also going to bring my uni-wheeled suitcase too (to carry suit, wedding present and birthday present).

Hide and Go Seek

‘Hide and Seek’ is the classic game we all played as kids. At times I can’t help but think I’m still playing it, only now I’m not sure whose team I am on. Lemme try and clarify. What is the typical ‘traveler’ doing? Hiding or Seeking? One way a travel could look at it is:

My name is Chris. So what else do you need to know? Stuff about my family, or where I'm from? None of that matters. Not once you cross the ocean and cut yourself loose, looking for something more beautiful, something more exciting and yes I admit, something more dangerous. So after eighteen hours in the back of an airplane, three dumb movies, two plastic meals, six beers and absolutely no sleep, I finally touch down to the next new thing.
- Richard in The Beach

Now there is a guy on a mission, right? He is acting, not reacting, right? Therefore we have ourselves a Seeker. Lets add a twist. I’ve been on of those three year self-appointed self-financed sabbaticals you might have been hearing so much about … you know, to increase my international exposure.

At what point does the seeker, after not seeing what he is suppose to find, become the hider? Why doesn’t he find it? What is he running away from?
Alls I can say is I’m definitely not lost, I’m just not found.

'Morality of Preemptive Strike' or 'Is all really fair in love and war?'

I’ve been chewing on the idea of ‘Preemptive Strikes’ ever since George W. used it as a means to go to war with Iraq.

Are preemptive strikes an acceptable means of defense? Can you define ‘defense’ as ‘striking first’? Or are preemptive strikes somewhere in the family of paranoia? I don’t know any of these answers. Seldom are my opinions black and white, usually more a form of grey. Seldom, the questions I ask myself yield answers, usually only more questions.


George W. by no means invented the concept. For example back in WWII there was the highly controversial Fire-bombing of Dresden. Just prior to the bombings, Dresden was regarded as a beautiful city and cultural center with no direct military presence.

Near the end of the war, after the Allies bombed all the German cities full of bad guys, they got to thinking “What are all the bad guys going to do, now that we blew up all their cities?” The conclusion was “… they will probably move to a city we haven’t blown up yet.” The debate I have with myself: Can you blow up cities that DON’T have bad guys in them, but you think MIGHT eventually be used by the bad guys. To me, that has some parallels to firefighters using ‘controlled burns’ to limit the impact of forest fires.

What am I really rambling talking about?
Ingrid and I have broken up.

Check here for the short ‘n sweet version. Keep reading for the more incoherent one.

When is it time to call it quits on a relationship? Should the captains go down with ship? … futilely trying to salvage what they can, only to drowned in vain? Or should there be intervention? … which would prevent a worst-case scenario but result in a suboptimal (nonetheless livable) outcome?

Ingrid’s and my relationship has entered a new stage … a very transitional one. About the only thing that IS clear is that we no longer have the titles boyfriend/girlfriend. What our relationship will stabilize to be is still very uncertain. Despite the pains, confusion and frustrations that all moments like these bring, I still hold Ingrid in the highest regard. I truly hope our relationship continues long into the future.