The Guatemala Holla, in America for a Spell

California 20, or, Alameda Day

2012-01-28T12:30:00.003-06:00

Alameda is one of the funniest places in the Bay Area. It's a little island off the coast of Oakland with a quaint suburban feel and a quaint main street that probably should be called Main Street. It was formerly home to a Naval Air Station, which has since been closed. So now, it's home to an abandoned Naval Air Station on a prime piece of real estate that is mostly a Superfund site.

However, it is also home to a couple wineries (or at least their tasting rooms) a distillery, and one of the Bay Area's goofier museums. And you can take the ferry there directly from the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Perhaps the centerpiece of our visit was the St. George Spirits distillery. It is located in one of the old hangars on the Naval Air Base (pictured at top) and is, as far as your correspondents could tell, the only tenant in any of the buildings on the base, the remainder of which sit eerily abandoned (pictured immediately above).

In any case, the good people at St. George are friendly and knowledgeable and offer a variety of delicious beverages in their tasting room. The most broadly distributed are Hangar 1 Vodka in a variety of flavors, including Buddha's Hand, which lemon-related fruit they kindly display in a jar for people wondering what the heck a Buddha's Hand is. They also make some fancy liqueurs, some whiskey, and perhaps most notably, absinthe. The tasting series a great way to wind up a little tipsy in the middle of a ghost town navy base in the middle of the afternoon.

More about our favorite museum in Alameda some other time...

California 19, or, Mission Bars Part 1

2012-01-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

Nice bar. Love the sign. Good but a bit too much on a weekend night. It probably is just as good as the bars we love in the Mission, but since we don't actually live in the Bay Area any more the old sentimental favorites are going to be tough to displace from the top of the list. Photo turned out surprisingly nicely for trying to handhold a point-and-shoot camera on the street after dark.

We're back! Or, California 18

2012-01-27T21:11:00.002-06:00

We're back! We were gone! Our day job was kicking our asses for the last week. It may do so again soon. But for now, it's the weekend and we'll post a few more ridiculous pictures here for our eternally patient reading public. Above: To keep you from getting too excited that we're back, here's a picture of something we found posted at a Muni stop in San Francisco. What does it all mean?

California 17, or, Culinary Investigation One of Three

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

Your intrepid correspondents endeavored to maximize our time in the culinary paradise that is California, before spending a year in the culinary wasteland that is Washington, DC (improving, so maybe now only a mediocrity rather than a true wasteland, but still). The first of these efforts -- undertaken, of course, in the name of Science -- was San Francisco Ice Cream Day.

As with any place where the young and hip and employed gather, there are all variety of artisanal and farm-to-table and homemade and crafty and unique foods in San Francisco. Case in point: Blue Bottle Coffee which is way over-hyped and people wait in ridiculous lines for it, but it is perhaps, it turns out, actually worth it. Iced creams are no exception. There are far more high-falutin' ice creameries in The City than we could have hoped to try in a day. So we settled on three.

The first stop was Xanath in the Mission, which features all-organic ice cream in fancy flavors, such as saffron, as seen above. There were a bunch of other places that should have been the second stop, but we accidentally walked by Zeitgeist and had no choice but to stop for a while and have some beer in the sun.

When we eventually got back on course, the second stop was Smitten, on Patricia's Green park on Octavia in Hayes Valley, by some truly horrible public art, which we gather -- nay, hope! -- may be temporary. Anyway, Smitten's gimmick is that they actually make the ice cream as you order it, in an impressive cloud of liquid nitrogen.

After we were (if I recall) tempted to stop at another bar for some wine around cocktail hour, time for additional stops was slipping away. I don't really know how many ice creams your correspondents would have been up for, but our dedication to sugar is no match for our dedication to alcohol. Three full servings of ice cream would have to do.

So our final stop was Mitchell's, down in Noe Valley. (All photos from Mitchell's involved one of the taste-testers in an unflattering pose while eating ice cream, so they will remain unpublished.) In contrast to the fully-organic or made-on-the-spot varieties we tried earlier, Mitchell's gimmick is that they have been making kick-ass ice cream for 50 years and change. And the winner, by acclimation, was Mitchell's in a landslide. Maybe they could just add some clouds of liquid nitrogen for effect, and there would be no reason to go anywhere else.

California 16, or, I Like This Picture

2012-01-17T18:49:00.002-06:00

Maybe you don't. Shotwell near Cesar Chavez.

California 15, or, Architecture

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

We like this picture. Although we also recognize that some of these San Francisco pictures have not exactly been thrilling compositions or subjects. But we hope to remedy that soon with some tales of San Francisco derring-do. But really, the good pictures ended when we left the coast and came down to The City.

California 14, or, Jugs of Wine

2012-01-15T08:00:00.001-06:00

Sutton Cellars is a warehouse in the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco, where they make tasty wine from grapes that are fortunately not from the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. We have a connection who's on their mailing list for their monthly "open studio" wine tasting events at the warehouse. The wine was good, but perhaps better was the atmosphere which was very laid-back and not at all wine snobby. And, they have maybe the coolest "labels" ever on these swing-top jugs.

California 13, or, Records

2012-01-14T13:21:00.002-06:00

We did some poking around in the various goofy stores on Valencia. This was found at the Salvation Army I think, but where-ever it was, you have to be a serious crate-digger to be going through used records stacked up with no sleeves. But maybe there's some genius in a basement in the Mission making amazing music out of samples from scratched-up contra-dance records.

California 12, or, Stipplemania

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

Still in the same spot since the time we lived a couple blocks away some seven years ago (and who knows how long before that), this display in the Mission is only somewhat worse for the wear. I figure the creator considers it art. Or maybe he or she just loves Wall Street Journal Stipple Portraits. And who can blame them? Long may it reign.

California 11, or, Newspaper Hat

2012-01-12T08:00:00.001-06:00

Since on a previous trip (which it turns out we never really detailed in these pages in our rush to Afghanistan) we biked across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and on to Tiburon, we figured we needed a different touristy bike ride this time. So we decided on a spin around the perimeter of The City, starting at Pac Bell Park or whatever it is now, up around the Embarcadero to the Marina, past the foot of the bridge, down by the Sutro Baths to Ocean Beach and then down to some unknown spot to cross back over to the bay side. Our first detour was when your correspondent decided it would be way cooler to bike over the top of Telegraph Hill rather than around us. So that basically kicked our asses right from the outset.

Then over by the Lincoln Park Golf Course and the Legion of honor we made a vain search for a small trail that led to us riding up and down another decent sized hill several times. So that was ass-kicking number two.

So when we got to the Beach Chalet, we didn't really have much choice but to stop for a beer. And when we got done with the beer, we figured we might as well just head straight for home through Golden Gate Park and the Wiggle. So our bike ride wasn't quite as long as we planned, but not too bad.

But anyway, the point of this was the above detail from the WPA-era murals at the Beach Chalet. Love the newspaper hat; love the Mark Twain book; love the angry sandcastle maker. There are a lot of other things to love in those murals, but these are some good ones that are right next to each other.

California 10, or, Doggie Panniers

2012-01-11T21:47:00.002-06:00

Like the title says. Dogs in panniers. I guess they also make panniers for dogs, but who cares, that's not as cool. And we didn't see any in San Francisco.

California 9, or, Three Image from the Way Back of the Mystery Machine

2012-01-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

Presented in order of being able to discern the surroundings.

We had a great evening in Oakland eating fine meats on Piedmont Ave and seeing a New Orleans-style brass band play at Disco Volante downtown. The prospect of a long painful trip on public transportation ahead of us, this friend of a friend offered to give us a ride back to The City. Turns out that ride was in the most awesome 1970's van of all time. All these pictures taken from my seat way back by the rear doors, some 50 yards away from the driver and passenger seats up front.

California 8

2012-01-09T21:01:00.002-06:00

It wasn't all campgrounds and sunsets in California. We also spent a fair bit of time in The City, split between a couple nights in a swanky hotel in Union Square and an apartment rental deep in the Mission. We wandered around and occasionally took pictures of nothing in particular.

California 7

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Two more pictures we like from camping in Northern California. Above: Something big; Below: Something small.

California 6

2012-01-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

More surprisingly to your correspondent than the very cool tide pools -- which were awesome, but as promised -- were the really nice fields of feet-high wild grasses. Not something that springs to mind when you (or at least, when I) imagine the coast of Northern California.

California 5

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

While we're at the seaside, in addition to crazy little marine animals that I don't know the name of, there were seals. But also in addition to seals, there were plants I don't know the name of. For example, those pictured above, which seemed to be making a little tropical forest of miniature trees on the rocks that were at times underwater but at this time, not. Also, crashing surf, producing a rain-like effect in this picture which was captured at the slowest shutter speed at which I could keep the camera relatively still.

California 4

2012-01-05T20:02:00.001-06:00

Some really nice tide pools at the Salt Point State Park. Crazy critters; anemone things, hermit crabs, starfish, and more. We took a lot of pictures but didn't get them all and even the stuff we got, I don't know what they're called other than "crazy little tidepool creatures." If you want to see a more traditional closeup of this purty starfish, we did that, too.

California 3

2012-01-04T08:00:00.001-06:00

When in Northern California, we recommend Salt Point State Park. On the Pacific Coast of Sonoma County, it features a dramatic shoreline perfect for exploring tide pools, some very pretty grassy meadows and stands of trees, and... a pygmy forest. Pictures of tide pools and pretty grassy meadows coming over the next few days. Somehow -- whether due to incompetence or laziness, we don't know -- the staff photographer didn't wind up taking any pictures of the pygmy forest. Our apologies. To aid in your imagining the pygmy forest, it was like a regular forest - but shorter.

We did take the above picture of star trails on a bright moon-lit night in the campground of Salt Point State Park, which does feature some odd trees. Some of them are short, but I think they're just young, not full-fledged pygmies.

California 2

2012-01-03T22:41:00.001-06:00

This picture of a rusty fire ring is just a placeholder because it's late and we don't have it together to write any thrilling anecdotes about our time in California. We remain, as ever, suckers for close-up pictures of rusty things.

California 1

2012-01-02T22:05:00.002-06:00

So, to catch you up on the story, in case you're just joining us, which we can't imagine why you would be:

In 2010, we started working in Afghanistan and due to the needs of the Foreign Service to have us in Afghanistan right now, we were kindly granted a waiver to take less than the Congressionally mandated amount of home leave in America between foreign tours. So then, when we left Afghanistan for a job in Washington with much less urgency that we report right now, we had some extra home leave days in the bank. So we got a nice long break that allowed us to see Alaska (about which see the previous 30 or so posts) and our old stomping grounds in California's picturesque San Francisco Bay Area. And some other stuff, but that's coming soon.

Coming over the next [however long it takes]: pictures and occasional anecdotes from Northern California. If you hadn't figured it out yet, we're currently on assignment in Washington and the exotic travel photography opportunities are a little slim, so we're not exactly moving at lightning pace to get through the home leave pictures. I know that's not what faithful fans of the Foreign Service Blog are looking for, but one does spend some portion of a FS career in Washington, so there you have it.

Alaska 30

2011-12-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of a cute dog lazing about the stage area at the Fairview Inn bar, a historic (for Alaska) locale and a traditional hang-out for those returning from a grueling trip up Denali - or a grueling drive back from the parking lot at the Matanuska Glacier, as it was in our case.

One other note on the Alaska Mountaineering School - we were disappointed with the trip but the weather obviously wasn't their fault. We didn't really get what we paid for, but it wasn't for lack of effort by the instructors, one of which instructors set out shortly after our trip to compete in a crazy Alaskan race where teams of two get dropped off in the wilderness somewhere, and have to make their way to another point in the wilderness, 150 miles away, with only what they can carry on their backs. Their plan involved basically running up some mountains, then coming down the glaciers on the other side, then inflating a raft they were carrying on their backs the whole way, and floating downto the vague area of the finish line. Turns out, they won. 60 hours of wilderness travel with about one hour of sleep. Bad ass crazy dudes.

Alaska 29

2011-12-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

Some cool stuff we got to do while on the glacier. Above, The Lovely Katherine demonstrates flawless ice climbing technique. Below, she ties gorgeously dressed Munter Mule Overhand knots in setting up an anchor and pulley system to pull a fallen climber out of a crevasse. (Or rather in this case, Rocky, a boulder playing the part of a crevasse victim.)

Alaska 28

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

We did make it to the Matanuska Glacier. It was a bit of a disappointment because you can just drive up to it, park, and stroll onto the glacier. But it's still a glacier, and we did camp on it, which was pretty cool, I guess.

Alaska 27

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Three views from Talkeetna, where we wound up spending more time than we had planned: airstrip; sidewalk; ice cream truck.

Alaska 26

2011-12-26T08:00:00.002-06:00

The intent of our stop in Talkeetna was to learn some mountaineering skills. The class we signed up for was supposed to fly us up to a glacier on the shoulders of Mt. McKinley, where we would learn techniques for safe travel on the glacier, camping in the snow, and rescuing someone who has fallen in a crevasse.

The weather was not our ally. Due to cloud cover, we were unable to fly to the glacier for several consecutive days. So we did a lot of training exercises, which we would have done on the glacier, in and around the Alaska Mountaineering School's facility in Talkeetna - one detail of which is above.

It kind of sucked. We still learned a lot, but not as much as we would have up on the glacier, and with a severely lower fun/cool factor. The teachers were still good, but in the end we drove to a glacier between Talkeetna and Anchorage that was covered in scree and didn't really offer the high-altitude environment we were hoping to train for. We'd had great success in our endeavors on each of a ridiculous number of vacations over the last year, so I guess we were due for something to not work out just right.

Alaska 25

2011-12-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Despite some time spent in Denali National Park, and plans to spend more time there, this was the best view we got of the mountain on the whole trip. It's on the far left. In the foreground, the budding Occupy Talkeetna movement takes shape.

Alaska 24

2011-12-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

Ok, that's enough of Denali. We have made an editorial decision that you don't need to see a not-exactly-spectacular picture of a bear or a moose taken from the park bus window. So we're moving on.

But speaking of photos taken from the bus window, this was on the bus ride from Denali down to Talkeetna. Apparently someone thought a big igloo-shaped hotel would draw all sorts of tourists or convention business to the middle of nowhere in Alaska. They're probably right - I wish we could have stayed there!

Alaska 23

2011-12-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

We did not only see dead caribou antlers - we also saw quite a few living caribou, sometimes at unexpectedly close range. To go out in the wilderness in Denali you have to watch a video that tells you a lot about what to do if you run into a grizzly. They tell you a bit about what to do with an aggressive moose. They don't tell you what to do about caribou acting weird and territorial near your tent.

Don't worry; it turned out fine. We have much closer up pictures of caribou, but they're not as nice as this further away one.

Alaska 22

2011-12-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

Found near our first campsite in the Toklat valley. Or perhaps placed there by previous campers. But certainly killed in the first place by something awesome like a bear. Or wolves. We saw lots of tracks of both. We saw actual grizzlies from the safe confines of the bus. On our way out of the park, when we flagged down a park bus with our big packs and our smelly clothes, one of the other passengers said we must have been very disappointed not to see any grizzlies while out camping. I guess it's for the best that that person just stayed on the bus.

Alaska 21

2011-12-21T19:08:00.002-06:00

Sunshine and marmots! The Toklat River valley was perfect.

Alaska 20

2011-12-20T20:10:00.000-06:00

After the tale of woe in the Mosquito Bog of Death, just as we were getting off the bus at our next backpacking location, the sun began to peak out. We arrived at a lovely, flat, grassy spot in zone 9 with the sun shining, and finally got to dry out those items of clothing that were a bit wet - i.e. darn near every last stitch of everything we had.

Alaska 19

2011-12-20T20:05:00.000-06:00

We'll be pretty much caught up with one more tiny flower picture...

Alaska 18

2011-12-20T20:01:00.002-06:00

To make up for lost time, here are a couple picture of some tiny little flowers they have up in Alaska. Summer's short; flowers are small.

Alaska 17 (belated)

2011-12-20T18:42:00.002-06:00

So we've fallen behind again. We were in New York and we valiantly didn't even bring the computer, which wouldn't have mattered even if we did because we were too busy eating and drinking to post anything anyway. So... where were we again?

Oh, yes, the tale of woe! The Mosquito Bog of Death. Now I remember.

Our kayaking guides were two young, energetic, outdoorsy types. They had wisely gone to Alaska after college and were now running around guiding kayak trips in the summer and pursuing other outdoorsy vocations (skiing, teaching kids about nature) in the winter. Smart kids. And so when one of those smart kids told us that when we went to Denali after the kayaking trip, we should grab a permit for Zone 15 if we could. The attraction there is awesome views of Mt. McKinley/Denali from along the McKinley River.

Most National Parks in the West have a system of trails, and most have along those trails a series of designated camp locations for backpackers. In Denali, by contrast, the whole park is split into Zones. You get a permit for a zone, you walk into the zone wherever you will (no trails) and you figure out somewhere to camp. It's true wilderness. It's wonderful. Except when it sucks. So we got to the permit desk, read the descriptions of the various zones, grabbed Zone 15 for two nights, and then another night at higher elevation for the next couple nights.

We took the long bus ride all the way to the end of the road where Zone 15 starts. We hiked down to the McKinley River, and planned to start hiking along the river, which has a wide riverbed with braided channels crisscrossing it. Unfortunately, a swift deep channel ran up right against the forested riverbank. So we hiked overland through the forest. Which forest was filled with felled trees and low willows, soft squishy uneven footing and 1,000,000 mosquitoes.

The going was arduous. We often had to stop to figure out a path around a fallen tree, but every time one stopped the mosquitoes swarmed even more intensely. Even just hiking along they were so thick that one wound up breathing them in as they swarmed around your face. We thought back to reading the description of Zone 15, and the prophetic, understated line: "During summer you can expect lots of mosquitoes." We have hiked through the jungle of Guatemala. We have camped by ponds and lakes in wilderness across America. We thought we knew what "lots of mosquitoes" meant.

We had absolutely no idea what "lots of mosquitoes" meant.

Finally we decided we had no choice but to get away from the boggy forest and its mosquito infestation, so we waded across the icy river to the open riverbed. The mosquitoes followed. We could look at one another and see a personal mosquito cloud, which The Lovely Katherine likened to Pig-Pen from Peanuts cartoons. Except with mosquitoes instead of dirt, I guess.

We left the river in our dripping-wet boots and socks, and aimed for high ground to find somewhere dry and flat to camp. No such spot existed. We reached the top of the only ridge we could find on our topo map, and found it consistently covered in willow bushes. We were exhausted, we were peeved with the mosquitoes, and it was fixing to rain. So we set up our tent on top of a sea of low willows, and pulled out our sleeping bags to climb in.

It was then that your correspondent discovered that the high-quality Chinese import water bottle that he acquired in Nepal had sprung a leak inside his pack, dripping two liters of water onto his sleeping bag and extra clothes. As it continued to rain outside, we attempted to string up the down bag so it would dry (above), and then huddled under The Lovely Katherine's bag, spread out like a blanket. We left the tent as little as possible, because even a quick trip out to pee attracted a swarm of mosquitoes - pouring rain or no. We slept, and woke to find it was still pouring. So we waited.

And waited.

It rained all day. We contemplated whether we could break camp and get to anywhere drier or flatter than our current location. Nowhere on the map was apparent. So we stayed in the tent all day, and a second night. The second day, the rain was lighter. We packed up the tent, and hiked the five or so miles directly back to the road, which involved wading across the icy river several times, backtracking a bit when this led to uncrossably deep channels, and spending some time back in the boggy forest.

We got to the road at Wonder Lake, and were happy to catch a bus heading back toward our next night's camping area without too much of a wait. The bus was almost full of park visitors whose entire trip would involve riding the bus to the end of the line and back. One wag who got out to see the view at the lake, and got back on saying "It's called Wonder Lake because you Wonder if you got malaria from all the mosquitoes." If only he knew.

Alaska 16

2011-12-16T08:00:00.001-06:00

And now, a few days in which we will tell some tales and show some pictures from backpacking in Denali National Park, which was our next major stop after kayaking, via a night in Seward and a night at the Bear Country Jamboree Campsite or some stupid thing like that, conveniently on the highway pretty close to the Park headquarters.

There are some tales of woe, and some tales of triumph. All in all, Denali is fantastic and we're totally glad we did it. We'll let the reader take some clues regarding the tales of woe from the picture above, and tell the full story tomorrow. Stay tuned!

(Oh, and sorry the photography has been more illustrative than actually interesting or impressive for a few days now. We hope it will turn around soon.)

Alaska 15

2011-12-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Seward is fairly far south for Alaska. So it wasn't quite the land of the midnight sun. But as these photos testify, it is land of the well-after-midnight still-pretty bright.

Alaska 14

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

The Guatemala Holla is proud to present our new recurring feature on the best bars in the world. Entry number one: The Showcase Lounge in Seward, Alaska. The Yukon Bar across the street was nice in its own way: They had a live DJ, and a back door that was wide open with a cardboard sign taped on it that told people to go around to the front where they would check ID's, which sign at least one group of youngsters ignored while we were there, to the great displeasure of some bouncer/bartender type. But this isn't about the Yukon, which also had a tacky thing where you write on a dollar bill and pin it to their ceiling which gave it a couple demerits but it was otherwise fine. It would be fine, were it not in a fight to the death with its across-the-street rival, the Showcase Lounge.

First of all, the Showcase Lounge has the sign you see above, which: Awesome. Second, the Showcase Lounge has the interior you see below: Leather seats from a bygone era, and all the walls lined with these weird display cases full of a surely priceless collection of elaborate decorative bottles. And, the drinks were fine and the bartender was nice enough, and I think he was wearing a crazy Hawaiian shirt, but maybe my memory is failing me. And of course maybe I just have to rationalize that it was worth it because I probably got lung cancer just by walking in.

In any case, congratulations to Showcase Lounge, our inaugural Best Bar in the World!

Alaska 13

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

A last, disappointing picture from our kayaking trip. This is a section of a bay we stopped into on the boat ride back to Seward. It was a huge, nearly vertical wall of rock, covered with waterfalls ranging from trickles to pretty serious currents. It extends probably about one full frame further both to the left and the right, and was maybe 200 feet tall. It was the epitome of an amazing sight that was tough to capture with a camera - especially from a moving boat. Maybe someday I'll have time to put all the slightly off-balance pictures together into a panorama - but that day is not today.

Alaska 12

2011-12-12T08:00:00.001-06:00

The water was often perfectly flat until we screwed it up with our kayak paddles.

Alaska 11

2011-12-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

A weird sight from the lagoon. We saw many, many bald eagles. It got to the point where we would notice something moving and everyone would look to see what it was, and be disappointed when it was just another bald eagle. However, it was still noteworthy to see a bald eagle hanging out not in a tree, but on an ice floe that had drifted some distance away from the glacier. It doesn't seem like a very good spot for fishing in the bald eagle manner. Perhaps he was just cooling off his talons after a hard day. Wish we had a better picture of it.

Alaska 10

2011-12-10T11:48:00.002-06:00

When packing for a trip to the great outdoors, your correspondents generally endeavor to travel light. This is both because we're generally on foot and therefore carrying everything we choose to bring for miles and miles. More philosophically, we generally take the "getting away from it all" aspect of wilderness to include a variety of our favorite intoxicants and stimulants. I.e., we don't pack coffee, and we don't pack booze.

Lucky for us, our fellow travelers on our kayaking trip (a guided group with eight paying clients) operated with a different philosophy. First of all, the trip was not cheap (that danger pay from Afghanistan continuing to burn holes in our pockets), and part of the service we paid for was having our guides cook gourmet meals for us. "Gourmet" in this sense entirely graded on a curve, but taking into account that we were literally several hours by boat from the nearest grocery or kitchen, they did pretty well. They also provided coffee every morning, which was a nice treat. If you've followed Google here in search for information on kayaking the Northwestern Lagoon or elsewhere near Seward, we heartily recommend Sunny Cove Kayak.

More importantly, some of the other clients were smart enough to realize that adding a couple pounds of weight to your kayak is much less burdensome than carrying the equivalent in a backpack. Taking the philosophy "any fool can suffer in the wilderness," some of our fellow kayakers brought some bourbon and some gin, with the goal of mixing drinks with glacial ice. I gather that there exist some theories that glacial ice is better for drinks because it(choose one) is more pure/is more dense/has ancient air particles in it/just sounds cool. Pictured above, paddling back to camp with chunks of glacial ice gathered from the lagoon.

Whatever motivation was necessary to inspire these kind people to bring and share martinis and bourbon as we sat on the beach, watching avalanches of ice fall from the glacier across the inlet from us, it was much appreciated.

Alaska 9

2011-12-10T11:44:00.001-06:00

Another retroactive post; detail of driftwood on one of the little beaches where we camped.

Alaska 8

2011-12-10T10:33:00.002-06:00

Once again the day job has interrupted our publishing schedule. Apologies. We know our loyal readers would be distraught if this deprived you of all the pictures of Alaska you deserve. So, we now retro-actively present this picture of some cute otters! We saw a lot of otters.

Yay otters!

Alaska 7

2011-12-07T08:00:00.001-06:00

Loved this spot for the cracks in the rocks and the barnacle stippling patterns on patterns.

Alaska 6

2011-12-06T08:00:00.001-06:00

On the third day of kayaking, we started paddling in more gloomy grayness. During lunch, the sun broke through the clouds, and by the time we launched again after eating, the sky was blue in all directions. After a couple days of steady drizzle, it seemed like a rare treat, especially with no guarantees it would last.

We paddled around the big island in the lagoon, through increasing traffic of ice floes ranging from a couple inches to a couple yards across. Rounding the island was perhaps the highlight of the trip - the entire lagoon past the island was clogged with icebergs, and dozens (maybe hundreds?) of harbor seals were hauled out sunning themselves on the ice. They're a bit small to see in the 360-degree panorama above - but they're right in the center. Click on the picture to see it much bigger, but probably not big enough to spot the seals. As a substitute, we present the picture below of one of the many seals who swam over for a closer look at the kayaks -- your correspondents would swear they were following us for quite a while, although it is a bit tough to tell one seal from another to be sure.

Alaska 5

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

For a good portion of the trip, we paddled in rain, drizzle, mist, and various other forms of wetness. The clouds were usually high enough to still enjoy scenery, but not always. The rain was sometimes light enough to allow for some modest attempts at photography, but not always. We set up tents in the rain (always fun) and stayed in them when we weren't paddling. Gray was the predominant color, most of the time. Not much you can do; it just rains a lot up there.

Alaska 4

2011-12-04T17:00:00.002-06:00

Our first major undertaking of the trip to Alaska was the Northwestern Lagoon in Kenai Fjords National Park. We did five days of kayaking on what I would have called a bay, or maybe even a fjord (see name of national park, e.g.). Upon looking up the actual definition of lagoon, I see that it was perhaps properly named.

The Northwestern lagoon is home to several tidewater glaciers - i.e., glaciers that end in the sea, calving big icy chunks into the water. The crazier part is that according to reports from our guides (which we have been unable to corroborate from the interwebs), as recently as 100 years ago, the entire lagoon -- at least five miles long -- was covered by the glaciers that are now rapidly retreating. The landscape featured a lot of very steep rock faces, scoured by the retreating ice and relatively free of vegetation. 100 years seems like a pretty quick retreat for a glacier, but I can't prove they were wrong.

Taking satisfying pictures of glaciers turns out to be pretty tough, as is the case with many immense things. The picture above gives some sense of scale, but in fact the kayaks in this picture are probably still a quarter mile away from what the glacier. (The park service recommends staying a half mile away from the glaciers to avoid being capsized by the waves from falling sheets of ice - I would guess we pushed that boundary a fair bit.)

Stay tuned - there will be more pictures from the Northwestern Lagoon for the rest of the week.

Alaska 3

2011-12-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

Two cool animal sightings from a boat tour we took on our day before heading out into the wildernesses of Alaska. Above, humpback whales. Best whale sighting was seeing one glide by our fjord-side campsite the next day, ridiculously close to the shore. But this one was the most photogenic, with the perfect fluke and the Bear Glacier in the background.

However, we had been even closer to whales while kayaking in Hawaii (some observers and state law would apparently argue we were too close). So the much smaller but more exciting sighting was below: Wild Puffins! They never got very close to the boat, and they're not that big to begin with, so we didn't capture any photographic masterpieces. But whatevs. Wild Puffins!

Alaska 2

2011-12-02T08:00:00.001-06:00

We're holding off on the scenery and the wildlife for the moment. In a return to chronology, we present these pictures from the Alaska Sea Life Center, an excellent aquarium in Seward, on the South Central coast of the state. We had most of a day to kill in Seward before setting off into the wilderness, and the Sea Life Center was rightly recommended. Apologies to any scientific types who would like to know exactly what these animals are. There's a hermit crab, and the standard I-was-at-an-aquarium picture of jellyfish, and some other stuff. They also had puffins (not pictured).

Alaska 1

2011-12-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

We went to Alaska!

The plastic cups and bar napkins of Alaska declare it the "#1 MGD State in USA." Your intrepid correspondents' investigations, which involved a small but we think sufficient amount of research time in Alaskan bars, led to the conclusion that the official MGD State Rankings must be subject to some sort of per-capita and/or cost-of-living adjustments, because there seemed to be a pretty normal amount of MGD there.

Anyway, we took a million pictures of amazing natural landscapes and animals and stuff in Alaska (which we will display here this month)... But only one picture of beer in a plastic cup, we promise!

India 30

2011-11-30T08:00:00.001-06:00

One last picture from the highway - a personal favorite, in fact, more for compositional reasons than any truths revealed about the subcontinent. In any case, that's all from India, for now. We probably went too far already, given that we were only there for a week.

And, that's it for pictures of awesome R&R vacations from Kabul. Between Tanzania, China, Hawaii, Japan, France, Nepal, and India, it was not a bad year on the travel front. And yet... up next: the awesome vacation that your government required us to take in order to get back in touch with America after completing our tour abroad. The December of Pictures from Home Leave in Alaska starts tomorrow!

India 29

2011-11-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

Two developing-world staples for you today, as we round up a last few images from the highway. First: Another example of the disparity of bus/truck aesthetics between the developed and developing worlds. A lot of less wealthy places gravitate toward a decorative style that the rich world might find a bit over-done. Painting buses and trucks is a prime example. As in Guatemala, most vehicles in India had a lot more detailing and decorative flair than we would typically find at home.

Second: The multi-passenger motorcycle. As perhaps illustrated previously, you really have to get past four passengers on a motorcycle to impress any more, but this was the best picture we came away with. As a bonus, below, note that if you don't have a helmet for every passenger, feel free to tie a handkerchief around additional passengers heads to provide a similar effect.

India 28

2011-11-28T08:00:00.002-06:00

Fatepur Sikri is an impressive complex of old royal palaces, courts, and mosques from the late 16th century. There is some fine architecture, and the stone buildings are quite well preserved. Of course, it is all uniformly the reddish brown of the primary rock used in its construction. This photo is a detail is from the ceiling of the residence of one of the emperor's wives, where you can still see the decorative paintings and get a slightly better sense of what it may have looked like back in the day. It's not that thrilling of a picture - but it's a picture of an artwork that's been sitting around outside for four hundred years.

India 27

2011-11-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Our day wandering around Old Delhi was a definite highlight. There were the winding streets and narrow alleys and shops selling all variety of goods. The spice market was a highlight, with a bunch of fragrant stalls. Then, suddenly, a dark passageway leading to a distant courtyard. Within that passageway, and the courtyard, was the hot pepper sales district. The volume of hot peppers being moved in Delhi is pretty impressive, and just walking through the passage made one's nostrils burn. Since "spicy" is the only flavor that I have much appreciation for, I quite enjoyed it.

As we emerged from the retail area, we found all sorts of presumable wholesalers pushing large quantities of goods by hand or hauling with any machine or animal they could. E.g, this guy moving what we estimate to be twenty tons of rice.

India 26

2011-11-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

I guess we're sort of running out of stuff to say about India. I don't know how. We must have forgotten something. But this is another picture of a crazy truck that seems too old to possibly be carting a buffalo around the streets of India. Surely, that's part of the plan when you make a truck that has something like 5 total moving parts. Easy to repair; lasts forever.

India 25

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Available for birthdays and bar mitzvahs.

India 24

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

We love all the little sidewalk restaurants of India. Not that we ate in many, but we like the idea of them. And we're assuming these two were sitting down to have a big Thanksgiving meal, even though the picture was taken months ago, and they don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day in India, and for all we know, they weren't eating anything. But we didn't wind up with any pictures of turkeys in India, so this will have to do.

India 23

2011-11-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

This photo doesn't exactly scream "India." But if you're a regular reader, you probably know that the staff photographer is a sucker for pictures of the texture of things that are falling apart. So there you have it.

India 22

2011-11-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what the trade of these young guys is. We saw a couple of them wandering around with these lamp contraptions. Are they selling the lamp? Is it just to aid them in shining shoes after dark? Customers put a quarter in and the lights flash and whirl? I'm sure there's something I'm missing here. It was very clear, in any case, that this was a young man's game. Like, probably not legal for them to be working young. I guess it's probably better than labor in a brick factory, but we'll reserve final judgment on that until we know for sure what the kids with the lamps were doing.

India 21

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

This youngster was one of many who would take care of one's shoes at the entrance of the mosque in Fatepur Sikri. In the style of any number of personal-service positions where someone does something for you that you didn't really need done, and would have preferred to do yourself, and then you're more or less obliged to tip them. The most famous example is the "restroom attendant." (I forget exactly where in our travels I walked into a restroom with an attendant, and immediately said aloud depsite myself "oh no you don't" and walked out. I guess I didn't have to go all that bad.) India is particularly good at this game, with various dudes always ready to "help" with whatever they can think of. It is, in many Indian tourist attractions, extremely difficult to avoid having a volunteer "guide," who even after being told in no uncertain terms "We don't want a guide and will not pay you," would proceed to follow us around and tell us fun facts about the site, and then for a tip. The shoe-minders at the mosque have a better racket in that one can theoretically imagine having one's shoes stolen were they left untended, and since you don't tip until you get your shoes back, you may never know what might have happened without them. Of course an even better racket would be to demand a payment up front, and then ensure the disappearance of the shoes of those who decline to pay.

Not sure what the horseshoes are for. Perhaps we should have paid a guide to tell us.

India 20

2011-11-20T08:00:00.003-06:00

The staff photographer took this picture on a rural road near Fatepur Sirki. He recalls thinking when he took it that it was going to be fantastic - one of the best of the trip. It didn't quite turn out the way we hoped.

Anyway, hey - water buffaloes!

India 19

2011-11-19T17:34:00.003-06:00

Messes of electrical wiring, often due to rampant hot-wiring of homes or businesses straight to the overhead wires, is common in a lot of the developing world. You've seen pictures like this before. But this one is from India!

India 18

2011-11-18T08:00:00.001-06:00

Street food in Delhi. We sampled a bit, but did not try whatever these Popsicle-looking things were. But given the steam from dry ice coming out of the cooler, it probably would have been a good idea. Instead we decided to have some fried pakora type thing. When it's 120 degrees out, a couple bites of deliciousness straight from the fryer turns out to be plenty.

We're happy that the cooler here is pretty sharp even though the guy's face isn't. An auto-focus failure early in the trip had us refreshing our manual focus skills throughout the rest of the trip, which is fine and dandy when you're shooting landscapes, but presents some serious challenges for street photography shooting from the hip.

India 17

2011-11-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

From a rooftop cafe in Agra. Yes, there really are cattle running around on the streets in India. The vendor at this little drink cart was splashing water at her, and she did manage to turn before bumping into his cart. Unknown if the two were related or not, but I would guess that was the guy's intent.

India 16

2011-11-16T08:00:00.002-06:00

Another from the highway between Delhi and Agra. We're assuming the unmanned steering wheel visible here isn't actually involved in operation of the truck, but it wouldn't be out of the question. We saw several of these musical contraptions in transit but never saw one in operation. Another reason to go back.

India 15

2011-11-15T08:00:00.001-06:00

The Yamuna river, which runs by the Taj Mahal.

India 14

2011-11-14T08:00:00.002-06:00

We had a tasty fruit juice at this stand. How could one resist? It's so colorful! And the big jars of fruit! And the olde timey grinder machine! One member of our traveling party who we won't name here was 98% sure that we were going to come down with dysentery after drinking juice here.

We lived!

The sun was really bright on the sign and shadows dark back where he was working, so that part has a lot of noise from trying to fix it after the fact. But once again, we lived!

India 13

2011-11-13T08:00:00.001-06:00

In Delhi. We liked the people on the top and the graffiti down below. Probably more of an "almost" photo than a real success, but it's Sunday and you shouldn't be on the Internet anyway. Go outside! Go read a book!

India 12

2011-11-12T08:00:00.002-06:00

This Mosque is in Fatehpur Sikri, dates from 1571, and welcomed all visitors with open doors. As a result, there were a lot of people who appeared local to my eyes who had set up little encampments in the shady arcades that ring the courtyard of the mosque. They were not particularly elaborate; I'm not sure if that's because the people couldn't afford anything elaborate or if the encampments only lasted for the day and everyone left in the evening. Some were selling prayer beads or tourist trinkets or crafts. Others just seemed to be sleeping or hanging out or living.

When we returned to Delhi, we attempted to visit another famous old Mosque in Old Delhi (I think also called the Jama Masjid), with a somewhat different policy. Upon reaching the main door, we discovered that some enterprising fellows had printed up tickets and were charging a few dollars for obvious tourists such as your correspondents to enter. Our trusty guidebook claimed entry to the mosque was free, and we strongly suspected that this was a scam and none of the "ticket money" would go to the mosque. We told the ticket sellers so, and said we would not be paying but that we would still like to enter.

The ticket-sellers found our reliance on Lonely Planet's suggested price structure unconvincing, and physically pushed your correspondent away from the door. Not jostled, but the kind of push that a junior-high student delivers another when trying to provoke a fight. Perhaps even a "What are you gonna do about it?!" push. Your correspondent, ever the diplomat, restrained himself from pushing back, but I admit it took a bit of an effort to convince myself that de-escalation was probably the right call. One of the ticket-seller's goon companions was a guy who looked about 55 years old, but had a rod of bamboo about an inch thick and four feet long that I saw him swing forcefully and eagerly at a bunch of kids who were apparently too close to the door for his desire. He brandished it, threatening tourists who didn't want to pay their bribe (not limited to us at this point). Had it come to that, I can't promise that my restraint would have continued. He was wiry, but I could have taken him, stick or no. It did not come to that, but definitely not a public relations win for the Indian people.

In the end, we chose not to pay, and chose not to enter the mosque, which from what we could see of the courtyard through the door, was pretty similar to the one we'd seen in Fatepur Sikri, pictured again below.

India 11

2011-11-11T09:54:00.002-06:00

The primary decorative feature of the car we hired to take us to Agra and back. I find this Indian style of spiritual art really creepy. It's not just that the characters portrayed are occasionally blue. In this case the faraway eyes are part of it - although this is not a particularly egregious instance of creepiness. The little images by the steering column here are actually better examples. The weird airbrushed perfection of the figures is the closest thing I can put my finger on - they are perfectly drawn and realistically shadowed and yet idealized in posture and form, and glowing like a poorly executed HDR. But it doesn't seem like that's a complete explanation. I'm mystified by these images. Maybe that's the point.

I suppose contemporary Christian vernacular figurative art is equally creepy, although I'm having a hard time thinking of specific examples. More satisfying explanations welcomed.

India 10

2011-11-10T08:00:00.002-06:00

Detail from Hanuman's Tomb, in Delhi. It's a lot like the Taj Majal, except smaller and not as good, but three hours closer. Or rather, it's not really much like the Taj Mahal at all other than that they're both tombs in India.

India 9

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

The photo department has realized that our year of photographing everything in Hollavision has really paid dividends in our shooting-from-a-moving-vehicle skills. Lots of pictures from India that landed among our favorites were from the long drive from Delhi to Agra, or vice versa. Or perhaps the boredom of sitting in a car for a few hours led to a higher volume of photography, so discarding the standard 99% left more keepers after the cull.

In any case... how awesome is this totally highway-worthy tractor?!

India 8

2011-11-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

These three were all lined up along the side of the road as we drove by. After enjoying a couple pedicab rides in Nepal, we never did a pedicab in India, because hey: auto-rickshaws.

India 7

2011-11-07T20:39:00.002-06:00

Despite the proliferation of options in the consumer wonderland of the U.S., I'm not totally sure I would know where to go if I wanted someone else to shave my chin-whiskers for me. I guess some old-fashioned barber shop might still do this?

Pictured above is actually one of the fancier barber shops we happened upon, what with the modest but serviceable space and the two actual barber-shop chairs. It seems that all one needs to be a barber in Delhi is ownership of a straight-back chair, a mirror, a pair of scissors, and a spot on the sidewalk. Which is fine - on a policy note (fret not: no foreign policy relevance), why should barbers have to be licensed by the government? The risk of a bad haircut seems like the kind of thing the private sector would pretty quickly take care of. Perhaps a relic of the days like the above when being a barber involved holding a straight blade to someone's throat?

India 6

2011-11-06T08:00:00.002-06:00

This is a detail from a fountain at one of the opulent palaces we visited. The Red Fort in Agra, we believe. But hard to say for sure.

With nothing further to add about that, I will note this: You know you have chosen to visit India in the hot season when the Indian newspapers have headlines about the heat and pictures of actual Indians who should be used to it mopping their brows and other such outward indicators of discomfort.

India 5

2011-11-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

Your correspondents had always known what the Indians call an auto-rickshaw as a tuk-tuk, perhaps only because we visited Thailand long before visiting India. They are ubiquitous in Delhi. And, awesome. We zipped all over that city on a pittance thanks to the auto-rickshaw. Our hotels kept wanting to get us fancy closed-in air conditioned taxis, which we accepted on occasion. But cars? They suck when compared to the mighty auto-rickshaw.

India 4

2011-11-04T08:00:00.002-06:00

As it turns out, we were in India over The School Holidays. It was never clear what this holiday was, but since the rest of the country seemed to be full-steam-ahead, I presume it was something like our Spring Break. Our hopes to take a train from Delhi to Agra were dashed by The School Holidays, which are an opportune time for the rapidly growing Indian middle class to take the family down to Agra. Our much more limited desire to take the bus? Likewise dashed.

As such, the confluence of two great forces aligned against us: First, the knowledge that it was entirely possible that despite our hopes to the contrary, we may never be so close to Agra again; and second, the temporary illusion that because we were earning Danger Pay and spending nothing in Kabul we were fabulously wealthy. I can assure you that our return to DC has scuttled any brief reverie that we were part of the 1%. But, by for that brief interval, that week, we were!

So we hired a private car and driver to take us down to Agra one day, stay there overnight, and drive us back to Delhi, via Fetapur Sikri, the next day. His price was ridiculously low for what we got. But it would not have been measured in the proverbial peanuts. Being a professional driver of tourists, we figured he would know his way around Agra, and be able to help us with such tasks as finding the Taj Mahal. We were mistaken! Some amount of driving in circles around Agra ensued, along with the asking for directions from random strangers.

And thus, this kindly fellow, hanging out, selling eggs (we did not buy eggs) who was one of many who attempted to guide us to the elusive rooftop-cafe-with-a-view-of-the-Taj-at-sunset. I wish the photo were a bit straighter, but it was taken from the back seat of the car as the indolent staff photographer sat and took pictures and rolled his eyes about the hassles of navigating Agra, and he certainly wasn't going to get out of the air-conditioned car to improve the angle of the photo. The subject may have been the one who got us pointed vaguely in the right direction, but in the end we just told our faithful driver to drop us at some random street corner, found our way on foot, and took an auto-rickshaw back to the hotel that night.

India 3

2011-11-03T08:00:00.002-06:00

We spent a portion of our time in Delhi staying in the Haus Khaz neighborhood. We stayed in a fun boutique bed-and-breakfast, fairly near a hip up-and-coming patch of restaurants and art galleries. Just beyond the hip art galleries, a park opens up, beginning with these ruins. There's no entrance fee, no gate, and precious little interpretive information, but it turns out to be the tomb of a Sultan who died in 1388. We don't have a lot of truly old stuff in America. But even in Europe, it's unlikely that the neighborhood kids would be playing cricket on a six-hundred-year-old cultural site. Or even soccer.

India 2

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Making no attempt to be chronological with regards to tales of India, we might as well start here.

The Lonely Planet Guide to India (Which like many LP guides, is available for download as a .pdf on their website making it unclear why on earth anyone would purchase an actual hard copy of any Lonely Planet book - you can download and print only those chapters relevant to the parts of a country you will actually visit, or you can put all the searchable .pdfs you want on your laptop or smartphone or something else you might bring with you. Great Stagnation, indeed!) says that many of the world's most famous sites are so overhyped, and so frequently seen in photographs, that they may fall a bit flat in person. The LP guide goes on to say the Taj Majal is without a doubt not one of those sites - one can't fail to be awed.

We failed to be awed. That may be too cruel: It was lovely, it was majestic, it was everything promised. But perhaps the very reading-ahead of the Lonely Planet promise that the Taj would not fail to awe set up an impossible standard, and in the end, a certainty that it would fail to awe. We should be so lucky to test this theory with all the world's over-photographed monuments.

India 1

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

We were only in India for a week. So it shouldn't be that hard to boil it down to 30 pictures. The photo editor is apparently getting soft, and some less-than-top-shelf photography is getting through. Maybe the picture above, from somewhere on the road between Delhi and Agra, is an example. It won't make anyone say "wow," but we like the textures and the bricks showing through the plaster and the spots of yellow and the dripping black. But anyway, following on the heels of The October of Nepal Pictures, we now present The November of India Pictures. Enjoy!

Nepal 30

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

Last picture from Nepal. Waiting out a downpour under the eaves.

Can't recommend Nepal enough. Great scenery, great history, great mountains, great people. We could probably do another month of pictures from Kathmandu and have probably already forgotten a few anecdotes that would have been fit for inclusion here. Perhaps if we remember, one day we'll add them here.

But in the meantime, starting tomorrow: India!

Nepal 29

2011-10-30T15:08:00.002-06:00

Our last day in Nepal, we made a morning visit to Swayambhunath, better known as the "Monkey Temple." It is perched high on a hill relatively near the center of Kathmandu. The Monkey Temple name derives from the hordes of rather bold monkeys that live there and harass visitors. Sadly, we survived our trip with no monkey-related incidents to relate.

The crowd at the temple seemed to be majority local, despite the World Heritage Site status and ease of visiting the site from the backpacker ghetto in Kathmandu. There were lines of people having various offerings blessed or burned or just left in strategic offering locations. And for those who found the view from the hilltop insufficiently impressive, you could pay a few Rupees to climb this platform for an additional meter of altitude. (Being honest, I think payment for platform entry also entitled one to use of one of several pairs of binoculars to try to spot your house in the hazy distance.)

Also: retail opportunities!

Nepal 28

2011-10-29T08:00:00.002-06:00

The second stop on our bike tour was the Hindu holy site of Pashupatinath. There is a complex of temples there, but non-Hindus aren't allowed into the primary site. We were allowed to go see the cremation ghats where they burn the remains of Hindus on the banks of the holiest river in Nepal. Apparently, this is a big tourist attraction, or at least all the touts wanted to take us there. We saw the ghats, smelled the smell, and did not actually see a cremation happen, which I'm sure was a great loss for us but one we were willing to accept and move along.

Pictured above, an associated retirement home, which sadly did not place its second-floor windows in spots that line up symmetrically with the retirees and monkeys below.

Nepal 27

2011-10-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

One of our stops on our bicycle tour was Bodhnath, site of the World's Largest Buddhist Stupa or some such. Which I guess is sort of like having the World's Largest Fourth-of-July Rodeo. There can't be that much competition, but nonetheless, the stupa at Bodhnath is huge. Maybe 75 yards across? Pilgrims come from distant lands to walk around it, and I suppose they had to make it big enough to make it worth the trip.

But we didn't like any of our pictures of the pilgrims or of the stupa as much as the picture above, of a vacant lot nearby. (One monk at one of the attached monasteries chatted with the staff photographer for a while, and then asked to have his picture taken, inspected the results, and suggested, "Don't you think it would be better if you used the flash?" He was right, but even the second attempt, with fill flash, wasn't so great, so the picture of a brick wall wins.)

Nepal 26

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

So with our full day back in Kathmandu, we decided it would be a great idea to rent some bicycles to get around to all the sites. Stay on street level, get some exercise, &c. &c. So after some touristing, we rent some bikes just before the shops closed (in order to use them the next day) and ride them back to our hotel before dark - through city traffic. It was one of the more difficult/harrowing bike-riding experiences I can recall, up there with biking "the World's Most Dangerous Road" in Bolivia. There were some creeping doubts that this may have been one of the stupidest decisions we had made in some time. Way worse than the decision a couple days previous.

And then, the next day, as if by magic, there was a one-day automobile strike. In some constitutional standoff, some opposition group had declared the general strike demanding that, as a demonstration of solidarity, nobody drive. This was occasionally enforced by citizen roadblocks, but they seemed only barely necessary because it was very widely observed. I don't know if we would have been able to catch taxis even if we had wanted to. So we cruised around the streets of one of the more chaotic and traffic-choked cities of the world, traffic free. It was fantastic.

We took advantage of the empty streets to make our way to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu region, about which, more tomorrow. Pictured above, someone else on a bicycle, for those not familiar with this foreign technology.

Nepal 25

2011-10-26T08:00:00.001-06:00

Meanwhile, back in Kathmandu...

We returned and had a couple previously scheduled days for exploring Nepal's capital, which is certainly one of the world's best for wandering around aimlessly and finding interesting things by chance. Temples and shrines abound, as do colorful characters, old guys in charming hats, occasional sadhus (which the Holla Style Guide could have sworn was "saddo", until attempting to check the spelling on a moment ago and finding the wikipedia definition: "Saddo: A pathetic or socially inept person." Anyway...), &c. &c. &c.

Above from a candelabra thing in one of the countless courtyard temples we visited. Wish we could recall exactly which.

Nepal 24

2011-10-25T08:00:00.001-06:00

We present now, in two photos, the sum total of the dining options at the Lukla International Airport. The airport is surprisingly crowded, in large part because there is a brief window each morning when flights in and out are possible, and they squeeze as many landings as they can in that time. Despite the crowd, I never saw any customers at the "Fast Food" bar or the "Tea Stall."

Nepal 23

2011-10-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

On our way back down the trail, we (being way more bad-ass than most hikers on the trail) asked if we could do a side-trip up and over one of the high passes. Our guide, exhausted by all his work not explaining things along the trail, was not thrilled, but eventually agreed to show us the way over the Kongma La pass.

The day started inauspiciously. We were not 100% certain our guide actually knew where he was going, and the first step of the day was walking across the Khumbu glacier. As you may or may not be able to tell from the picture above, the glacier here is mostly covered with rocks and scree. But the ice below is always shifting so the terrain is uneven and things that looked stable can slide into sinkholes at a moment's notice. The guide sort of seemed to know a path across, but he didn't seem to have any sense at all that there was any danger at all. Above, The Lovely Katherine and said guide cross a narrow path between a very deep sinkhole to the left, too steep for rocks to collect on the ice, with a pond of certainly extremely cold water at the bottom. To the right, less steep but certainly no fun to fall down. And as we were walking we could often hear and sometimes see small ice- and rockslides crashing into just such holes. So in this case, your correspondent stopped to watch the other two cross so that if it did fall at least one of us might not go with it and be able to mount a rescue. Impossible to detect from a picture is The Lovely Katherine telling the guide to hurry because it didn't seem very stable and the guide literally stopping, turning around, and asking her "What's that, do you want to go faster?" Anyway, we made it across unscathed, although we did witness a huge (perhaps fifty feet across?) slab of ice collapse on the opposite side of this sinkhole once we were safely resting on solid ground on the other side of the glacier. People do this walk all the time without (as far as we know) incident, so maybe we were just paranoid, but it did seem like we were rolling the dice a bit more than we bargained for on this one.

Once across, we climbed the Kongma La. This was a fair bit more strenuous than any of the standard days on the Everest Base Camp trail. Not surprisingly, it was also a lot more peaceful. We saw one other group of two coming over the pass the opposite direction, and other than that, saw nobody, which is a pretty good day in such a heavily touristed region. The pass at Kongma La is supposedly 10 meters lower than Kala Patthar (or exactly the same, depending on who you listen to). Your correspondent decided it couldn't be that hard to just scramble up the saddle another 10 meters. It was harder than he thought, but reliable estimates indicate he bested the more commonly climbed Kala Patthar summit by at least two to four inches.

Nepal 22

2011-10-23T12:09:00.001-06:00

Everest!

It's actually the one in the center. Nuptse, on the right, is much shorter but may look taller because it's closer. The sunrise climb of Kala Patthar was great, but you do wind up with the sun coming up directly behind Everest, which makes the photography a little tough unless you want to haul a bunch of crazy filters up the mountain for that one picture. We opted to use this conveniently placed prayer-flagpole thingy instead.

Nepal 21

2011-10-22T10:45:00.002-06:00

Two views from the top of Kala Patthar, the highest point most trekkers reach, at more or less 18,500 feet. It's about the same elevation as Everest Base Camp. The base camp is the furthest one can proceed without ropes and crampons, and has great views of the Khumbu Icefall, the most treacherous part of the ascent of Everest. But the views are better from Kala Patthar, as photos above and below attest.

Nepal 20

2011-10-21T08:00:00.002-06:00

Monks at Tengboche.

Nepal 19

2011-10-20T08:00:00.003-06:00

Continuing up the trail after Tengboche, we made our way to Pangboche, site of another monastery. The view from within the monastery courtyard was incredible. And unphotographable with the equipment the staff photographer was carrying.

The courtyard was being re-built, and was unpainted wood. A balcony wrapped all the way around. On one side, a door passed into the temple (as seen a couple days ago). In the center of the courtyard, an older guy burned some sort of censer, filling the courtyard with smoke. On one side, lined up along the balcony, six or so monks chanted the same sort of variable-speed Muppet songs mentioned yesterday. The head monk, pictured above, did various bell-ringing and feather-waving rituals. Towering above them was Ama Dablam, a huge, knife-like peak. It was gorgeous, in full, beaming sunlight.

Sadly, the monks were in full, gloomy shade, with incense smoke adding to the haze. We made some attempts to capture the scene, but they're just not worth showing here. So, instead, we offer the above detail. Sorry.

Nepal 18

2011-10-19T18:23:00.003-06:00

One of the legendary spots on the way up to Everest is the Tengboche Monastery. Positioned on a fantastic little saddle ridge featuring distant views of Everest (Tengboche being the only time in 10 nights in plywood hotel rooms on the trail that we had a view of Everest from our window), the monastery could be a notable tourist attraction even in a less distinctive location. Instead, it's here, only accessible by foot, a short day's walk from the nearest place you could conceivably land a plane and several days' walk from the nearest actual airstrip.

We arrived there and had much of the afternoon to kill. We figured at some point we'd need to check out the monastery, and wandered in to find the monks in the middle of prayer, which it turns out happens often but not constantly. Maybe all you students of eastern transcendentalism already know this, but it turns out that the monks at a monastery get together and chant. The head monk, I gather, is leading the chants, and the words change from time to time. The chanting sounds like if you took a 45 RPM record of Muppets songs and then and played it at 33, and then used a finger to randomly speed it up every now and again. And then, all of a sudden, all the monks pick up random musical instruments and make AS MUCH NOISE AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN for a half a minute or so. Then they go back to chanting. It's way more awesome than any singing I have seen at any other religious gathering.

In any case, here's a picture of one of the back-bench monks who was just in front of us, with his crib sheet for words to the latest chants.

Nepal 17

2011-10-18T08:00:00.001-06:00

Continuing our kick of various Buddhist stuff along the trail to Everest, this is the interior of the temple at the Panboche Monastery. We will make no attempt to explain any of the stuff inside the temple, in part because our trusted guide and cultural interpreter who we hired at some expense revealed once we were on the trail that he was in a one-year period of mourning and could not enter any of the temples. Not that his presence would have made too much difference, but there is a lot going on in these places.

Nepal 16

2011-10-17T08:00:00.001-06:00

Another view of a prayer wheel. If you turn it the wrong way, you may never get the knife.

Nepal 15

2011-10-16T08:00:00.001-06:00

Those Buddhists, what with their centuries of history and what not, seem to have come up with a pretty elaborate collection of symbols and rituals. Which is, apparently, just something religions have to do. To the previously noted prayer flags, stupas, and carvings of mantras on any rock people might walk by, add the prayer wheel. Historians agree that the prayer wheel was almost certainly invented by Eddie Murphy in 1980's almost-classic The Golden Child. Your correspondent resisted the urge to repeat this scene with any of the hundreds of prayer wheels he saw.

N.B., photo inspiration credit due to fellow (and current) Embassy Kabul bureaucrat Brian Neely.

Nepal 14

2011-10-15T08:00:00.001-06:00

There are many spots along the trail up to Everest where one passes rocks carved with the Buddhist mantra "Om mani padme hum" repeatedly on a rock, or each of a bunch of rocks. There are a few particularly striking places where a massive rock outcropping has been completely covered with the mantra, as seen above.

It seems like it might take a lot of work.

Nepal 13

2011-10-14T08:00:00.002-06:00

An action-packed picture of wind-blown flags for the thrilling conclusion of Flag Week! There are only so many pictures of prayer flags we can handle, so a work week of flag photos is going to have to suffice. But don't despair, we're not even halfway through the Holla October of Nepal Pictures!

Nepal 12

2011-10-13T08:00:00.003-06:00

Penultimate flag week post! Flags piled up and dusted with snow on the top of Kala Patthar, 18,500 ft.

Nepal 11

2011-10-12T08:00:00.002-06:00

Flag week marches on... Some of the flags have been out and exposed to the elements for a long time - a little thin and pale.