Excerpt From My Travel Journal: Saigon
This morning I realized that exactly one year ago I came home from my trip to Southeast Asia. This also means that it’s been a whole year since I’ve been out of the country (shocking, I know!) But in honor of that trip, I decided to post my favorite blog from that trip. I wrote it while in Saigon. Enjoy!
Zippo
I made the severe mistake today of sitting down at a café in the backpacker-full Pham Ngu Lao neighborhood. Well, sitting down at the café wasn’t the problem, it was the fact that I chose to consume my much needed refreshing lemon juice at the one table that sat on the sidewalk.
Sidewalks in Saigon tend to be covered in motor bikes, so enough space to fit a table and make it look nice was already surprising. I therefore took advantage. I managed to momentarily forget about the people that cruise the area selling their endless supply of wares: photo-copied Lonely Planet books, Zippo lighters, knock-off sunglasses, postcards, etc.
Within minutes of sitting down I was approached by a cyclo driver. Cyclos are the popular way of getting around Saigon for tourists; the driver sits on a bicycle in back and carts around someone in the chair-looking contraption built onto the front. The man walked right up to our table and opened up a magazine to the center-fold.
“City cyclo tour? I give best one. So good, I’m in magazine. Magazine comes by I wave and say hello and they take picture.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Friday Photo: The Thanskgiving Plate
I can’t believe I haven’t updated since last Friday… I’ll make up for it next week. But here’s my favorite photo from last night’s wonderful dinner at my parents’ house. Hope everyone else had a lot of good things to eat, drink and be thankful for.
Friday Photo: Fisherman’s Wharf
I took this in San Francisco back in September; pretty obvious if you look at the name of the boat in the background. I’m surprised the seagull let me get him on film without flying away.
Happy Friday!
Get a Subscription to Wend For the Holidays!
We’ve got a cool Holiday Subscription Offer going on at Wend: Buy one get the second half off. I mean really, what better way to say “Happy Holidays” than by signing someone up for a Wend subscription? Plus in this crazy-over-anything-green day and age, you can’t go wrong with a magazine that’s printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified paper and donates 25% of subscriptions to environmental non-profits.
Trust me, this is the one gift you don’t want to be without this season. It’s smart, it’s green, and even Sasquatch is doing it. Take advantage of the Holiday Subscription Offer now! When gray and rainy March comes around and you need some travel inspiration, you’ll be glad you did.
Zen Recycled Art
I read about this Buddhist temple in Thailand constructed out of recycled bottles a few weeks ago — and even wrote about it on Gadling — but I just now came across more photos of it at Green Upgrader. The Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple is about 400 miles northeast of Bangkok, making it just far enough away from the city that it’s still enough of a hidden gem. The monks of the temple used green and brown bottles from around the area, helping to clean up their community, and create a stunning structure.
The great thing about recycled bottles as decoration — and about 1.5 million have been used in the temple, giving the nickname “Temple of a Million Bottles” — is that the colors don’t fade, giving a timeless color show when the sun shines through.
Sounds of Travel: St. Germain’s ‘So Flute’
Over at Gadling we’re doing a series called the Sounds of Travel, featuring music that we’ve either discovered while traveling or that reminds us of traveling. Last week I wrote an article on “So Flute” by the French band St. Germain (they’re one of my all time favorites). Here’s a little preview:
France. This is a country known for its music. The stereotypical accordion tunes from atop Montmartre embodied in the soundtrack of Amélie, the ballads of Edith Piaf, and the intense lyrics of adopted icon Jacques Brel (he was actually Belgian, but the French like him so much they seem to forget). But beyond those symbolic melodies that scream French roots, there’s another side to French music. One that is much more urban, cosmopolitan and chic. It’s the smooth, electro-jazz, slightly funky sounds of contemporary bands like St. Germain.
Read the rest of it, and watch a video of “So Flute,” here.
What the evolution of technology really looks like
This video is pretty striking. Sort of scary and empowering all at the same time.
Only From a Swede: Luminescent Fiber Optic Wallpaper
As I said yesterday, it’s the time of year for light, which makes this new wallpaper by Swedish designer Camilla Diedrich so fitting. Lit up by fiber optics, the luminescent wall paper almost magically adds light to a room without an actual light fixture. But surprise, surprise… it’s expensive.
[Via Inhabitat]
Friday Photo: Keeping the Dark Hours Light
December is around the corner, which means time for Swedish celebration of advent and lots of candles to keep the dark hours well lit. In this photo, I love the shadow that is created around the base of the candle, making it look almost like the sun spitting off luminous rays.
Photo Chosen for Gadling Photo of the Day
The photo from Glacier National Park that I posted last week (scroll down to see it) got selected for Gadling’s Photo of the Day on Monday! Check it out here.
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