Luxury to Poverty.

On Monday, Emily and I headed to a meeting with some local women to discuss entrepreneurship in their community of Bo-Kaap. The women were very warm, inviting and inspirational. Their call to action came a few years ago when male unemployment in their community due to the recession trickled to women helping one another put food on the table. These are women that have cooking, sewing and other skills that are marketable. The two women that we met with took it upon themselves to facilitate a monthly cultural fair where the women can sell their goods and simply be around one another for support. Emily and I will go to the market Saturday and hopefully enjoy a feast of delicious local foods and crafts. Pictures to follow:)

Tuesday we went into the townships (even went into a cresh daycare) then to Stellenbosch, the Western Cape’s wine country. We drove into town and had a delicious lunch, complete with an American waitress! She recommended the “golden circle” of wineries. So we took her advice and visited three wineries. I hate to sell-out my home, but this is a whole different level of beauty compared to Napa. There are HUGE mountains, an endless sky (the Montana sky of S. Africa), significantly cheaper everything…a tasting was less than $3 and then if you bought a bottle, the tasting fee was waived…so for $5, you got lovely ambiance, tasting and delicious BOTTLE of wine to take home. Mmm!

Yesterday we headed to Gugulethu, a township east of the city. We helped a community farm with weeding in the hot African sun. It has been there for about 20 years as part of this project: http://harvestofhope.co.za/ We weeded a bed of “spinach” which is what they call chard here. I enjoyed the first hour or so of stoop labor—found it meditative and glorious, however, the nettle got to me and I was ready to be done after the second hour;)

Emily has also connected with an after school program called Beyond Experience Environmental Program (BEEP), so after farming, we met up with the two staff, Lindela and Khanyiswa, that are from the township and have been leading the program for a few years. They work in four primary schools with grade 5-6 students, providing workshops to teach children about the environment and then they go on overnight camping trips throughout Cape Town. This was my first real township experience and Emily and I were separated at different schools. Lindela thought that it’d be a good ice-breaker to allow the students to ask me (aka LaurRRRRRen) whatever they wanted (without telling me this). I learned that I look 21-22 yrs old to Lolonga, an 11 year old studentJ (Clearly I had to reciprocate the question) We did some extreme nominating and cutthroat voting to see which students were going to get to go camping on the next trip. The students all speak Xhosa, the language that involves lots of clicks, and English. The students had to write an exam for the voluntary afterschool program (I was highly impressed with their behavior and respect). Lindela and I made sandwiches for the students: bologna + ketchup + white bread and hot dog + mayo + brown bread and as they completed their exams we distributed sandwiches. The children were VERY polite, patient and waited until food arrived. No one complained and everyone was appreciative. It was clear these students were hungry and it was difficult for me to see. I am so grateful to be here healthy and happy, being granted the opportunity to meet beautiful people and re-evaluate my worldview.

Ostriches and penguins! Oh my!

We took a scenic drive to Cape Point, the southern most tip of Africa* and protected habitat, on Saturday. Emily met a wonderful German girl, Dorothy, who is here doing an internship for a climate change NGO, that joined us. We headed south along the coast, stopping at an ostrich farm along the way. They were very cute and we learned way more than I ever knew about them.

Ostriches…

a) have leather

b) have the second strongest leather (to kangaroos) with 14 layers of skin

c) ingest sandstone to help them digest food

d) can run 70km per hr for 30 minutes

We continued south and the weather could not seem to decide what it wanted to be and resulted in crazy wind and occasional drizzle, followed by clouds, sunshine, rinse, repeat. The views were awesome and all I could really think about was where we were on the map. So far south! Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to return to spring and the southern hemisphere? The days are getting longer again. My body is very confused as to why I’m eating strawberries and corn again…

We returned home on a different path, stopping at Boulder Beach for penguins!!! They were molting and actually much more ugly than their zoo cronies (but I presume much happier…except for the predators maybe). We saw African Penguins, formally known as Jacka** Penguins !!! They were very cute and smelled bad. We had a Tibetan meal for lunch in Simon’s Town.

Sunday we got up early, as we’d made a “booking” at 9:30 AM to watch the Rugby World Cup Final-France v. New Zealand. Our bar was for NZ all the way and after a great match the All Blacks won!! Rugby might genuinely be the most savage professional sport; no timeouts, no padding, no helmet…though these things also make me question anyone who would play a full contact sport without pads..?

We had a great walk along the beach of Seapoint and rounded the day out with delicious white wine in Camps Bay. It was a lovely weekend:)

*not actually the southern most point, but close and where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean are meet.

We ♥ Real Beer = Lies!!!

Greetings from Cape Town! I have started my adventure after a rather stressful transitional life of working for 6.5 weeks after being laid off. It is such a relief to be done and SO exciting to be traveling (aka in my happy place)!!!

My 33.25 hour journey from SF-->CPT took me through Amsterdam and Johannesburg on KLM. I will say, KLM is an airline I recommend flying. While the food was not the best, they made up for this with multiple feedings per flight. COPIOUS food. You will never go hungry on KLM. Both long flights offered snack areas in the back with crackers, cookies, mini Mentos and tea/water and they each had ice cream distributed between the 3 main meals. THREE!

I had a 9 hour layover in Jburg and stayed at a hotel for a quick shower and cat nap. I left a sunny Jburg spring morning to fly to a "wintery" (per our pilot) Cape Town, complete with light rain. Michael and Emily greeted me at the airport (weeeeee!) and immediately interrogated me about homemade brownies from my mom. We hopped in their new-to-them 1993 BMW, which seriously is a HUGE leap nicer than our shared black Altima at home...not complaining, I'm just saying...took Michael to school and then Emily and I came to their beautiful home. We have a view of Table Mountain, that is incredible! My guest room has a view of the police horse grazing land, I find this funny.

Apologies for boring you with details. The title of this post has to do with the fact that so far the wine has been AMAZING, but the beer is awful. If you know me, you recognize my love of that golden, hoppy, refreshingly magical beverage known as beer...here, the "beer" fails. Emily and I were at a wine shop and saw this sticker claiming that South Africans love real beer and I just wanted to let the world know, this is not real beer.

I'll share real news in my next post, but please feel free to email and comment early and often. (It is such luxury to travel in a country with readily available internet!!)

Thoughts, Feelings, etc.

Greetings from...drum roll please....Walnut Creek!!! I have safely returned from my 11.5 week journey. Fairly unreal feeling. Europe and Asia feel worlds apart (literally:)) My mind has divided them, so that at this point, I can only comment on overall lessons learned and Asia. Thus, without further ado....
Lessons Learned
1. Rice is amazing and delicious in all forms. Always.
2. 7-11 is a whole different breed in Thailand. I think I will continue to never go in the US (other than when I scored goals as a child in soccer and got rewarded with a Slurpee), so as to not taint it's stature in Asia. Open 24 hours, air-conditioned AND you could ALWAYS buy a bottle of cold water. (not just water in a fridge; sometimes the fridges weren't plugged in. it made you expect cold water, but really..LIES!)
3. Pet populations need to be controlled. Southeast Asia demonstrates this all too well...
4. Bus/train squat toilets are never a good idea.
5. Traveling alone allows you to meet a LOT of people.
6. Monkeys, elephants, water buffalo and turtles are still my favorite animals. you have NO idea!
7. Lauren and access to cheap and delicious food are a formula for disaster. Unlike most normal people, I lost weight in Europe and gained it in Asia, merely due to price. sigh.
New Life Goals
1. Run a marathon
2. Learn to knit (thank you Jill and Aurora for inspiration!)
3. Learn a new language, suggestions welcome as to which one
4. Live abroad for an extended period of time and get paid? ie work...(accepting job offers now:))
Highs
1. Meeting other travelers and locals
2. Appreciating my youth and health
3. New cultures
4. GREAT weather (in Asia, NOT Europe)
5. Food, new different exciting amazing
6. Cost of services, food, products, alcohol, lodging in SE Asia
7. Friends living abroad and putting me up--THANK YOU ALL!
8. Having the luxury to read a TON (once my mind engaged)
Lows
1. Not speaking Thai
2. American guilt complex...Cambodia was the worst, but I felt it in Laos too. Why did we bomb these countries for so long again? There's NOTHING there..why destroy a country that already barely has any infrastructure.
3. Stomach woes--inevitable, however, Alex didn't have any. what up with that? We met some Aussies and they called it a "runny stomach." Gross, but good terminology.
4. Not having you all with me to share the experience.
Ok, so that's a wrap. I've been home for 40 hours and it already feels like weeks. If anyone wants to, you know,...give me a job abroad? I'll GLADLY accept. Thank you for your comments, emails, advice for the last 3 months. This blog, while I fought the idea initially, really allowed me to feel connected to everyone when I traveled alone and was far far away. Thank you for reading, it was a great support. Until my next big journey...
Love,
Lauren

Greetings from Paradise

A very belated hello to all! I have been so far behind on blogging, but having so much fun traveling! Just arrived in Bangkok this morning after a boat-->bus-->bus overnight extravaganza. I will say that while traveling here is sometimes frustrating, i.e. stop the bus periodically with no explanation...one is never sure if it's a toilet break or if the bus is broken or if the driver is merely buying cigarettes (have I told you lately that EVERYONE smokes in Asia? It is so reminiscent of South America for me when I started feeling bad not having lighters for people...oh social norms! nerd alert?!), it is a scenic and amazing way to see the country. Last night we got caught in the tropical storms of all tropical storms. It was AMAZING. We unfortunately we're in the process of our "half hour"=1.5 hour stop to switch buses and got SOAKED. Really brought the bus together however, lots of new friends. Something about having all of your belongings on your back, then having your back get soaked, really unites people. Regardless, the first bus was SO hot that the shower probably improved the overall bus odor for the long haul of a journey back up to BKK. They showed Blood Diamond on the bus, fairly heavy, but I watched lightening. Seriously, continuous lightening for 3+ hours. One of the coolest things I have ever seen.. Anyway, my life for the last couple of weeks:
Kho Tao---beautiful rocky island in the Gulf of Thailand. One of the most popular dive sites in the world. Alex and my British friend Jannicke got open water certified=Lauren got free accommodation! Our weather was not the best, but I got much needed zen time staring at the ocean, snorkeling, sunset drinks...the snorkeling here was UNREAL, i couldn't swim without bumping into fish. Jannicke's cousin is a dive instructor and has lived on Koh Tao for 4 years, so we had a local guide. It was great.
Railey-HEAVEN ON EARTH. Please go here if you ever have the opportunity. It is beautiful. Huge limestone cliffs, a climbing destination--it reminded me a lot of Jurassic Park. From Koh Tao it took us about 13 hours to arrive in Railey, part of the mainland near Krabi, but only accessible by longtail boat. The highlight of our journey was arriving in Krabi after dark and having them lure 6 other people to buy tickets to go to Railey (they'll only take a boat at night if it has 8 people). They shoved me and alex into a rather dilapidated tuk-tuk and gave us random luggage, which upset the owners of those bags...ultimately we took this tuk-tuk down a dark pier then had to walk onto the boat in complete darkness, no worries, only stairs with ropes and wow, glad we made it on. The ride was about 20 minutes and was really tranquil. It was SO dark and I was singing "Gotta have faith" to Alex, because we literally were at the hands of the longtail driver. When we approached the beach we ran aground about 200m from the actual coast because the tide was out. So had to wade/walk with all of our belongings to get out. It was great though. We stayed in rather posh accommodations since that is all Railey really has to offer and enjoyed 3 BEAUTIFUL beaches. Little kids bring you drinks on the beach, I got a foot scrub, Alex a massage. I almost didn't leave. Alex and I did part ways though. He went off to Hong Kong and I continued south to meet up with some friends in Koh Phi Phi!
Koh Phi Phi-I was warned that it was super touristy, which it was, however it is for a reason. The clearest waters I have ever seen. I snorkeled, but it was relatively unnecessary because you could see everything as well from the water. I LOVE parrot fish. Did a sweet hike up to the viewpoint and got to see where the tsunami hit in 2004. You can't even tell it ever happened now, but they've rebuilt since the tsunami. then we continued to Rantee beach which was almost empty and gorgeous. Phi Phi has fun nightlife, they did fire throwing, fire limbo, fire jumprope...you get the idea. I danced all night and would just walk into the sea when it was too hot. Met lots of people. I would have loved more time there. Now I have one more night in Thailand. Cannot believe my journey is winding down. I intend to do one more blog of actual thoughts and ramblings, but need to go frolic now! See you all soon!
Love,
Lauren

someone took my flip flops:(

Hoooooola! Alex and I have finally reached beach paradise of Thailand. We are staying in Koh Tao, "divers paradise," on the southeastern coast of Thailand. Kind of amazing. I think my entire trip has been based around arriving here. That said, it is currently storming, so I'm waiting it out on internet:) Should be snorkeling in a bit. In reference to the title, we just had breakfast and you have to take your shoes off before entering places here (standard for asia, I dig it...wiggling my bare feet as I type)...anyway, i removed mine and when I left got a different pair of the same flip flops that are more worn and too big. To be fair, pretty sure mine were fakes and these are brand name, but still. EW! someone else's foot sweat. Still surprised that this is the firs time it has happened on my trip though:)
What else? We overnight bused from Vientiene to Bangkok and then got a morning bus to Siem Reap that took us 13 hours! We had to cross the Cambodian border and it just took all too long. Driving in Cambodia was fairly hilarious. Lots of motos, and animal carts, bicycles, buses, trucks and cars all sharing a two lane highway, the last bit of which is unpaved. It makes for lots of horns honking and near misses. I saw more passengers on motos and in cars than I have anywhere else in the world. SEVEN on a moto, probably over 20 in a minivan=RIDICULOUS.
Siem Reap was unreal. HUGE temples, frogs everywhere. I have amazing photos which will be uploaded someday soon I hope. DELICIOUS Khmer food. I bought a book about Pol Pot and man...I have a lot of guilt being an American. It's overwhelming that we bombed Cambodia of all places...
Then Alex and I met up with Julie Picquet in Phnom Penh!!! She is working for the Kiva Foundation and put us up in her apartment. It is run by an 84 year old Khmer deaf, mute man. So sweet. I LOVED P-P. We celebrated Alex's birthday with class (April 5) and went to markets, Toul Slang (the old prison used under Pol Pot..HEAVY) and ate wonderful food with Julie's friends. I love having a local hostess. Then we flew (yes, very over buses) to Bangkok. Got amazing lightening storms throughout all that. Then we overnight bused to the south of Thailand and caught a 7am Catamaran to Koh Tao. Now, I'm in paradise. I miss everyone and will try to upload photos soon because they have high speed internet here! Happy Passover/Easter/Full moon, etc.
Love,
Lauren

You can take Lauren out of Laos, but you can't take Laos out of Lauren!

Very early morning greetings from Bangkok! Alex and I have just stepped off our overnight bus from Laos to Thailand. We arrived over an hour early. Not one of those events where it is in anyway useful to arrive early...Thus, it is 5 in the morning and we have just booked another bus to Cambodia for 7:30. No better way to cope than with internet! (and everything else is closed...)
Highlights (and lowlights) of the last week:
1. We took a beautiful bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Very mountainous and allowed us to peer into mountain/rural living in Laos. The people were showering on the side of the road. Cows, chickens, goats were wandering. Land was being burned. Little kids were walking home from school. There were small children and pregnant women EVERYWHERE. Made me start to wonder what the life expectancy and infant mortality is in Laos. Every traveler I've asked just says there are lots of children because "there's nothing else to do." However, Alex just looked it up and life expectancy at birth is 56 (=young!) and infant mortality is 85 per 1000 births, also high. This makes sense...but still...We got to see a BEAUTIFUL sunset. Reminds me of all those environmental videos from school when they'd highlight how bad pollution was, and then say, "but it makes for BEAUTIFUL sunsets." Case en pointe.

2. Vang Vieng is a tourist destination. Weird town where you can tube down a river and go bar to bar. We opted to go to caves on our one day there and took quite a hike deep into a cave. It wouldn't be legal in other countries to go without a guide due to liability, but leave it to Laos! It was a good 8ish mile walk and great cave!

3. There were many power outages throughout our stay in Laos. Really only hindered my ability to have 50 cent fresh tropical fruit smoothies...mmmm.

4. Laos is a communist country.

5. Vientiene, the capital, was the most developed city we saw the whole time. It was an amazing contrast. I saw people on the street, clearly very poor, and then a Merceded M-class.

6. I went to the US embassy to get more passport pages and the man greeted me by saying "hi, how are you?" First time anyone has asked how I was. Made me happy to be coming home eventually.

7. What are Buddhist beliefs on death?

8. In reference to the title of this blog, I have parasites or some crazy stomach issue. Really been challenging the last few days. I'm on the upswing though. Thank the lord! I did, however, miss kayaking from Vang Vieng to Vientiene. Alex and a fellow traveler did it. It was fun:(

9. Alex found me gatorade in Laos. I was speechless (and thankful).

Off to Cambodia now! Hope all are safe and sound:)
Love,
Lauren