Sunday, July 30, 2017

Week 23: Layover

Hey everyone!

 It's been a busy week. I saw family and friends, visited a few more cities in Israel, and saw another movie.

 I'm just going to talk about today. Elana and I woke up before 7 in Tel Aviv. After getting a little bit lost, we took a bus to the train to the airport. I slept through the whole flight.

 The plane touched down in Istanbul at half past noon. We made it through customs quickly, double checked that our bags were checked through to our next destination, and got a taxi to our hotel.

 After checking in and putting our stuff down, we took a bus to a train to another train so we could see the Hagia Sophia. (Elana would say that we crossed between continents, but everyone knows there's no reason to consider Europe and Asia to be 2 continents.)

 I've seen some pretty buildings in my life. Very few of them compare to the awe-inspiring structure that is the Hagia Sophia. The outside of the building is formidable, with an enormous dome and minarets at each corner. The inside gave me chills. It's decorated in mosaics depicting Jesus as well as Islamic art, all old and all beautiful. I'm so lucky to have been able to see it. Here are some pictures (scroll through to see all 3):



 Other than that, we did a little shopping, tried Turkish falafel, and did the same complicated journey in reverse to get back to our hotel. We leave tomorrow morning for our next flight. 

I've never had such a long layover before, but I'm glad we ended up with this one. Turkey is not a country I would have thought to go to and part of me wishes I could see more of it. The rest of me is excited to see the next cities on our list!

See you next week for countries that are entirely within Europe!
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Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Week 22: Lots and Lots of Cats

Hey everyone!

 It's been another unbelievable week this week. I landed in Israel soon after I wrote last week's post. I took a late train from the airport to Haifa, which is my main destination on this trip. At nearly 2 AM, I was reunited with Elana, my friend from Brandeis who has been studying at the Technion. 

 This last week has fluctuated between lazing around and ridiculously busy. I've had days where I didn't leave the building I woke up in.

 On Wednesday and Thursday, I was in Jordan. Elana, her roommate, and I all took a tour to Jerash, Amman, and Petra. We saw some beautiful sights and learned a lot about the history of the region. There were amphitheaters from the Greek and Roman Empires everywhere, a citadel in Amman, and a Nabataean cemetery in Petra.

 After a very long and very delayed ride back to Israel, I came to visit family in both Haifa and Zichron. It's been amazing, save for two important facts:

 1) My Israeli family loves cats and they've all got at least one.

 2) I'm REALLY allergic to cats. Like more than I'm allergic to anything else. 

 So it's been a bit of a struggle. I'm on allergy medication and I've got my inhaler handy for nighttime, but I'm also a sneezy, watery-eyed mess. And the cats are all really sweet, so I can't even resent them for it.

 It's totally worth it to see my relatives. I'm having a great time despite the slight misery. And I'll see you next week when I'm no longer sleeping in the same residence as a cat.

 Here is this week in pictures!





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Location: Haifa, Israel

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Week 21: In Transit

Hello from yet another plane!

This week has been another wild one. I visited Bangkok and saw the new Spider-Man movie (yes, that is what I did with my day in Bangkok). Then, I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I’ve never been to a country like Cambodia. It has a recent history of conflict and it lacks a lot of basic infrastructure that I’m used to. The drive from the airport was on mostly unpaved roads, past tiny houses (not the trendy minimalist kind). My hotel, which was on a dirt road, was pretty upscale. I got to enjoy air conditioning, a huge bed, and a good shower.

I also got a private tour of the temples. My tour guide, Bunny, told me all of the expected history about how the temples were built and the monarchs who financed them. I also learned about the soldiers who hid and fought in the temples during the Vietnam War. He pointed out the places they’d carved their names into the wall, presumably so people would know they’d been there should they not return.

Angor Archaeological Park is a World Heritage Site. There are over 250 temples in the complex, as well as palace ruins. The main attraction is Angkor Wat, which is the largest place of worship in the world. I went to see the sun rise over the temple and then climbed a terrifyingly steep wooden staircase to the top. It is the tallest building in the city, so I could see everything from up there.

Bunny also taught me about Hinduism and Buddhism. Many of the temples predate Buddhism and are dedicated to various Hindu gods. Some of them were designed for both Hindu and Buddhist worship, or were divided to accommodate differing practices. The walls were covered in carvings of gods and sacred stories, as well as stories of Khmer life at the times the temples were built. I did not know much about Buddhism before my trip to Southeast Asia, and there are definitely huge gaps in my knowledge, but I feel like I’ve got a much better understanding of one of the world’s major religions.

I’m on my way to Israel now (and I’ll be there by the time this gets posted). This part of the trip will be a sort of break for me – time to relax and visit with friends and family in a familiar place. I’ll tell you about it next week.

Thanks again for reading this blog. It means a lot to me that there are people following my trip, either here or on Instagram. Speaking of, here are a few pictures from the last week:



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Update: I've arrived at my destination. See you soon!
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Sunday, July 9, 2017

Week 20: Thailand

Welcome back to my blog!

 On Tuesday, I flew from Sydney to Bangkok. My plane was 20 minutes late, which doesn't sound like a lot except I had a 60 minute layover scheduled and had to go through Thai customs. I somehow managed to make my 2nd flight to Chiang Mai. 

 Thailand is a beautiful country. It's hot and humid, the people are friendly, and the food is spectacular. It's been a great week and I've still got a few days before I have to leave. I'll put some pictures at the end of the post.

 Being a tourist always makes me feel strange. Travel is one of my favorite things. I love to experience new places and see how other people live. The part that bothers me is that feeling that I'm barging into someone else's space. 

 I try my hardest to tread lightly, but I see so many people who make jokes out of the culture they're visiting or treat holy sites like playgrounds. When I see people like that, I wonder if they know what they're doing. And that makes me worry that I'm doing it too.

 This has been true for lots of trips I've taken, but it rings even truer here. The debate over cultural sharing is a hot issue on the internet, but I've never been satisfied by the conclusions any side comes up with.

 Yesterday was the start of Vassa, which our tour guide calls "Buddhist Lent." We spent the night in a village in Lampang, where we got to participate in a ceremony at the temple. Everyone held bunches of flowers with a candle, and some monks led us in circles around a giant statue of the Buddha as they chanted. I don't know what they were saying, but the ceremony was still beautiful. 

 Other than getting to sit in on (and partially join) a Buddhist ceremony, much of our trip has been very touristy. We've visited a lot of night markets, which all sell very similar clothes and trinkets for extremely low prices. I took a bike tour around Chiang Mai, learned how to make Thai food in a cooking class, took an incredibly short boat trip to Laos, and photographed a lot of temples. 

 I'm trying my hardest to be a considerate visitor. It's easy to remember to be respectful at a holy site (especially because people are quick to reprimand any misbehavior there), but it's harder to remember that etiquette is different here than it is at home. So while I'm here, I'll learn as much as I can and try my best to be respectful. I don't know if that's the right answer to the question of ethical travel, but it's what I've got for now.

 And here are the pictures!


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I'll see you next week from another country! Which one? Come back to find out.
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Location: Sukhothai, Thailand

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Week 19: Beyond the Sea

Hey!

First, I want to thank everyone for the incredible support and love you showed me after last week's blog post. Your comments and messages made me smile this whole week.

Another thing that made me smile this week was the trip I took. On Wednesday, I flew up to Cairns. For those of you in not-Australia, Cairns is a city in the north of Queensland, right on the Great Barrier Reef. I think you know where this is going.

If not, here's a picture I took of a sea turtle:

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The Great Barrier Reef has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. At the very earliest, it was when I was 8 and saw Finding Nemo for the first 10 or so times. I was enchanted by the idea of so much color and diversity in one spot. The distance made it even cooler, but it also made the idea of actually seeing it seem far-fetched.

That is, until I started planning my semester abroad in Australia. With most of the distance already covered, I was able to go up for just a few days. And it was so worth it.

I spent Thursday out on a boat, trying very hard not to get seasick. I got to snorkel at two different locations along the reef and saw some incredible coral, fish, and other sea creatures. Of course, I rented a waterproof camera so I could document the experience.

If this were a different kind of travel blog, I would encourage you to make the trek to the Great Barrier Reef. They didn't crown it a Wonder of the Natural World for nothing.

I would rather talk about how incredible it is that such a complex ecosystem exists on our planet. I saw dozens of species in the few hours I was underwater. There were fish, turtles, clams, coral, and birds. And those are only the ones that I saw. Coral requires very specific conditions to grow and it's wild to me that those conditions actually occur.

I don't want to get all preachy (or maybe I do), but we're steadily ruining those conditions. If water temperatures rise, the coral won't reproduce, which means that the whole ecosystem that relies on coral will disappear. All of those colorful fish, anemones, sharks, turtles, and birds will lose their food and Earth will lose its largest coral reef.

It would be presumptuous of me to offer any solutions, as I am a college student with no expertise in this area. What I can do is ask you to learn about the environment and how best to help protect it. Here is a link to the Australian Marine Conservation Society's website.  Feel free to check it out or to do your own research.

Thanks for bearing with me during my foray into eco-blogging (sort of?) As a reward, here are some more pictures I took while snorkeling!
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I'll see you next week with a post from not-Australia!
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Location: Redfern, Australia
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