Jul 11 2011

Some Favorites

We’ve now been home for almost exactly as long as we were away (which proves, beyond any doubt, that travel slows down time). I’m grateful to no longer be engaging in frequent long-distance bus travel, but it’s hard not to miss the adventures — good and bad — of our time on the road. Here are some favorites:

In which Catherine gets stuck in an Icelandic children’s waterslide.

In which we learn, while volunteering on a French dairy farm, that biodynamic agriculture involves a lot of cow poop.

Why you should never leave me alone in a cheese laboratory.

Our arrival in Lithuania at the beginning of a bike journey through the Baltic States — an inauspicious beginning, complete with lost luggage.

Biking through the rain to a former Latvian prison that now operates as a terror-themed hotel.

Forcing Peter to join me for an aqua aerobics class in Riga, Latvia.

Seeking out Rasputin’s pickled penis in St. Petersburg.

A night of heat, blood, and Russian mosquitoes.

The beginning of our journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

A homestay with Mongolian nomads, part two of many.

Peter accidentally getting a perm in Beijing. This may be my favorite experience not just of the trip, but of my life.

Photos from Tibet.

“Beauty treatments” from a Nepalese yoga center. Alternative name: ayurvedic torture.

Our second worst night of the trip, in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Peter’s Perm, Pt II: The Vietnamese update.

Eating deep fried tarantula in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The road crossing between Cambodia and Thailand, via O Smach.

The temples of Angor Wat.

And, lastly, the elephant buffet (in Surin, Thailand).