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Cambodia, Destinations, Landscape Architecture

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – Scenes from Angkor Thom, Bayon, and Ta Prohm

February 27, 2013


Frozen Portraits at The Bayon

Don’t laugh. I have an admission to make: we followed Angelina Jolie to Cambodia. She beat us to Angkor by a dozen years, filming scenes for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2000 among the picturesque ruins of the Khmer Empire, and as round the world travelers with a stop in Siem Reap, it was too hard to resist the cheesiness of a little star-stalking during our visit to the ruins.

The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider route includes a visit to the many-faced Bayon Temple within the bounds of the ancient city of Angkor Thom and a trip through the tree-entwined bones of the similarly aged 12th and 13th century Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university of Ta Prohm. Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Landscape Architecture

Six Hundred Years After Sunrise, or, Angkor in a Day

February 20, 2013

Angkor is perhaps the greatest of Man’s essays in rectangular architecture that has yet been brought to life.
– Arnold Joseph Toynbee, East to West


Exhibit A: Sunrise at Angkor Wat – The Clichéd (and Beautiful) Pilgrimage Point of Cambodia

Ankgor.
A spread of ruins; archaeological remnants of an ancient civilization.

Iconic.
A bit bewildering; there for the seeing, for the picture-taking, with secrets lost from time.

Unmissable.
Take several days, they said. We took one, and filled it as full as we could. Continue Reading…

Musings, Oregon, Photography, Tidbits About Us

Happy 154th Birthday, Oregon!

February 14, 2013

*Ending Radio Silence*

Hot on the heels of a year of globetrotting, this past month of life in Oregon shaped up to be one of near-complete digital retreat. Aside from Instagram snapshots, our online travel stories died down and we ditched most writing and photography in favor of spending time on in-person reunions with family and friends and our dear home state…and today, a resurfacing to say hello and show you what we’ve been up to! Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Featured Partners, Food, Intrepid

Frogs and Eels and Pig Heads

January 16, 2013

We’d been in Siem Reap for just one night and wandered through the buzzing downtown market stalls: woven scarves and metal jewelry, tourist T-shirts and carved trinkets. Colorful, and fun to gawk at while eating ice cream from Blue Pumpkin, certainly.

But what fun to get up the next morning, hop in a remork, and ride in the opposite direction of the crowds toward a real taste of the vivid, smelly, real-deal village markets supported by the Cambodian families of Tonlé Sap.

Twenty minutes through the countryside, a turn down a few smaller roads, and we arrived at the outskirts of the morning bustle, where space is first-come-first-serve and people set up in the wee hours to claim the best spot. Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Featured Partners, Intrepid, Landscape Architecture, Musings

Tonlé Sap Tour: Visiting the Floating Villages of Cambodia

January 9, 2013

An odd juxtaposition: being in a hurry, surrounded by a slow and ancient way of life.

We sped toward Siem Reap, Cambodia on a six-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. The dinner hour pit-stop barely gave us time to catch our breaths, and we were off again, aimed for few nights’ stay near the temples of Angkor Wat. I watched the sun set out the bus window, glazing everything from rice paddies to rustic roads with warm light, causing me to consider the farmers working the land to grow a living with each passing day.

When we arrived in Siem Reap, we knew our time was limited. Though we planned to join people from around the world in flocking to see the ancient Hindu temple complex ruins of Angkor, we also wished for a chance to experience something a little farther from the crowds, something a little more insightful about present day life in rural Cambodia. Enter: a visit to the remote floating villages of Tonlé Sap.


Floating Village of Kampong Phluk: Tonlé Sap Tour

Tonlé Sap is Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, a UNESCO Biosphere welling up to 15,000 square kilometers in the rainy season, draining to the Mekong River, and shrinking to 2,700 square kilometers during the dry season. North America’s Great Salt Lake is 5,483 square kilometers, by comparison.

One and a half million Cambodians live in 127 communities around and on the water. Lake dwellers live in bamboo floating houses and stilted structures, fishing for a living and navigating the waterways as they’ve done for centuries, though motors and foreigners and outside developers are changing the tides. Continue Reading…

Musings, Tidbits About Us

It’s The People.

January 7, 2013

I was recently asked to name the most valuable part of our 2012 Round the World Trip.

I suppose I could’ve wax poetic about life lessons, changed perspectives, clicking puzzle pieces, and the priceless benefits of beyond-the-classroom continuing eduction…

…but before my mind could tie my tongue, the answer jumped quickly from my heart and skipped across my lips: “It’s the people.”


Me and my sweet little friend Andre…on Day Four of our journey.

While it’s true that we’ve seen and done amazing things this year, I’m the most humbled and grateful to think of all the paths we’ve crossed, the smiles we’ve exchanged, the conversations we’ve shared, and especially the new friendships we’ve grown during our pilgrimage around the planet… Continue Reading…

Musings

Dusk

January 3, 2013


Sunset over Mount Fuji, Tokyo, Japan: On our Christmas Day flight home to Portland, Oregon…

Blink, and a year goes by.

Here, just three days from the anniversary of our January 5th departure (“Dawn” over Mount Hood), I find myself dwelling on the similarities between this year and last. During this symbolic month of new beginnings, Ted and I anticipate a new 12 month string of discovery…this time, though, the mysteries make me squirm. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Musings, New Zealand, Tidbits About Us, Travel Plans

The Night Before Christmas: At the Auckland Airport

December 24, 2012

It’s been a kiwi Christmastime. This November and December, we’ve traversed the North and South Islands of New Zealand, and I’ve been soaking up the spunk and joy in the little things, like this Christmas video from my favorite shop in Auckland.

A Night before Christmas from Pauanesia | Filmed & Edited: Tama Jarman
Music: ‘Walk in the Park‘ by the Wellington Ukulele Orchestra

Tonight, the spunk and joy is accompanied by a bit of melancholy and a large dose of gratefulness.

I’m so close to winging my way home.

It’s Christmas Eve: a few hours before midnight on the 24th of December (a day that sounded so, so far away when we first departed Portland on January 5th). We’re sitting in a hotel room just down the road from Auckland International Airport. Continue Reading…

Musings, Social Work

Beautiful Ideas Help the World: ASIA {Hand and Cloth Giveaway}

December 23, 2012

Sanaih kantha
Sanaih pantha Sanaih
parvata langhanam.

Slowly one stitches rags,
Slowly one traverses the path
And slowly one climbs to the top of the mountain.

-Traditional Bengali Sloka

Home, my friends. We fly home on Christmas morning. Ready to unwrap the gift of 2013.

As the blog rests quietly during this last stretch of December and we amble down from our mountaintop milestone of completing a year of travel abroad, I’m happy to share my final Beautiful Ideas Help the World post of 2012.

While moving from continent to continent, living out of a backpack, I’ve been unable to pack souvenirs home for everyone, but I’m grateful to be hosting giveaways along with each Beautiful Ideas post, offering friends and readers a little chance at something special from overseas while highlighting projects impacting lives through beauty, creativity, and entrepreneurship.

Feature Four: Hand & Cloth: Bangladesh
 Enter to be in the giveaway for this beautiful, one-of-a-kind Hand & Cloth “No. 2” blanket from the Blue & Gray Silk Collection by leaving a comment; read below for the full story.

How do you enter to win this lovely green and gold and blue hand-stitched silk blanket?

Easy!

I’m not a fan of gimmicky giveaways, so I’m not requiring tweets or follows, but I’m providing links to Hand & Cloth, and I’d love to invite you to follow the project’s story and think about purchasing from them the next time you want your dollars and cents to go toward something beautiful.

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below answering one of the following questions. (Leave a second comment answering the other question if you’d like to enter twice.)

A) What mountain top (literal or figurative) have you reached after a series of diligent footsteps?

B) What reminder makes you feel most comfortable in your own skin?

Giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere. (That means you lovely international readers as well!) All you need is a mailing address. Winner will be chosen at random and notified by email. If winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected and notified. See here for full giveaway terms and details.

Giveaway closes at 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time (that’s Oregon!), on Saturday, January 5th (the one-year anniversary of the beginning of our journey around the world).

Continue Reading…