Archives for June 2011

Where’s the money?

June 30, 2011 By Jillian

Some friends of ours had told us one of the greatest things they did while in Africa was to visit the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda. They were able to go to the National Park Office, buy a permit in cash, and then make their way to see the Gorillas. Unfortunately it wasn’t so simple for us as this was simply not an option.

Gorilla tracking in Uganda is a very delicate affair. For two full years local guides will go to see the gorillas and spend an hour with them each and every day. They do this so the gorillas come to recognize them as another, benign creature rather than a threat. Only after the group is habituated to humans are groups of no more than 8 tourists taken to visit them, and the permit to do so is only available via a handful of Kampala based travel agencies. You must select one agency from the web, send a huge ($500/person + fees) money transfer, and hope not to be scammed.

Did I mention this was Africa.

Our experience was awful. We arranged for the money to be sent and then we waited and waited. Every time we logged into the Internet we just hoped the money would have arrived in Uganda so that our permits would be purchased. With only a handful of habituated gorilla groups (at that time I believe there were three) and 8 permits available each day, we were running out of time. Nevermind that if the international money transfer didn’t make it, we might not be able to track the cash down….again, this was Africa.

In the end our wire transfer, something that should only take a couple of hours, took nearly 3 nerve-wracking weeks, not to mention the team of people working to get the money to go through. We did get to see the gorillas but the weeks leading up to it were stressful with all that money hanging in the balance. The next time we had to wire money overseas, this time for our Uzbekistan visas, we went with a different bank and although it went through OK, we paid almost as much in bank fees as we did for the actual visas.

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about managing our money and our spending on the road. We had credit cards and ATM cards and most of the time we didn’t have to worry about a thing. When we did worry about it though, it was rough and scary and really temporarily ruined our time abroad.

The moral of the story is to make sure you find a good way to transfer that money over borders because otherwise you’ll pay through the nose and maybe even lose out.

Photo: Dance Mask

June 30, 2011 By Jillian

Sometimes a museum almost has to be visited. That’s how we ended up in this coca museum in Puno, Peru dedicated to coca and….Andean festival costumes.

The masks in the museum were incredibly diverse and colorful and are often used for religious celebrations. Fortunately small cards described the festival associated with each mask. Perhaps most interesting is that the masks often represent characters or symbolize human characteristics associated with the holiday. It reminded me of Italy’s tradition of Commedia delle Arte, where masks represent characters that have their own individual personalities.

Many of the masks represented religious holiday festivals, some of the most lavish and decorated related to the Diablada, a famous dance from Bolivia that celebrates Virgin of Socavón. Masked dancing in the region dates back to pre-Colombian times, however the celebrations have changed with the times and are now most often associated with Catholic saint’s days and festivals.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Unfortunately we weren’t in the area for the famous dancing festivals. It would have been great to check out the masks used in a parade, but alas we had to settle for a museum. If you are interested in other festivals and holidays full of pagentry, color, music and dance, check out holidays in Dominican Republic where festivals happen all year round.

Photo: Glass Soda Bottles

June 29, 2011 By Jillian

You never know what you’ll come across in a market. These colorful glass soda or seltzer bottles stood out from the knick knacks and antiques in Buenos Aires’ San Telmo market. A collection of bric a brac and items hauled from grandma’s closet, with some interesting crafts (a zebra T-shirt?), plenty of cheap ‘made in china’ stuff and artisans thrown in, the market is a delight for your senses.

The overcrowded market does have some more interesting booths, especially for those of us not interested in antiques. When we were there several jewlery artists lined the road, each with a uniquely designed collection made of unusual materials- bone, silverware, shells. I’m a bit of a market jewlery junkie, so it was hard for me to break away!

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Although crowded, Sunday is the best day for the market and if you’re looking you’ll find something unique. Watch your pockets and dress comfortably– its easy to spend hours walking down the side streets. We were surprised by the number of immigrant artisans on the streets- a unique collection of people from all over the world, from africa, asia and europe. I wonder if you’d see those same crafts in Senegal or on a malta holidays?

Faces of the World

June 28, 2011 By Jillian

We took over 20,000 pictures on our RTW. Honestly we’ll likely never go through them all (ahem, Danny took two full photo montages of a not to be named glacier in Argentina), but we do have some favorites.

Taking pictures of people can be tricky. We usually asked or motioned with our camera before taking a picture of people- especially if the subject matter was a woman or children. Besides being culturally sensitive, it’s also nice not to be akward when walking around with a camera. Most subjects wanted to see their picture afterwards and we were happy to show them. Sometimes they mugged for the camera, most often kids.

Here are some of our favorite shots of people:

Did I say mugging for a camera? Yea, I meant them.
Samarkand, Uzbekistan

These women greeted us on our hike and smiled for the camera, but I love the composition of this shot from behind so much better.
Colca Canyon, Peru

It’s certainly a work out. Can you imagine the calluses on his feet?
Ninh-Binh, Vietnam

These people politely obliged our request for a photo, but then again I’m not sure from the expression on their faces that they quite understood.
Lalibela, Ethiopia

This man was painting calligraphy with plain water on the sidewalks around Summer Palace. No idea what the characters mean- do you?
Summer Palace, Beijing, China

This man was thrilled to see us at the Meroe Pyramids at 7am, but less than thrilled when we didn’t want a camel ride.
Meroe, Sudan

I love this shot, its so classically bohemian.
Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic

Have you ever seen a happier farmer? The people of Lesotho loved getting in front of the camera.
Malealea, Lesotho

My favorite Cambodian kid. He took a coke from the cooler, threw it on the ground to open it, drank it, and then asked for an ice cream. Love it!
Siem Reap, Cambodia

These photos were taken on our RTW trip March 2009- December 2010. Don’t forget to check out our Photo of the Day. Tell us your favorites and we’ll feature them in an upcoming post!

Photo: Buddha in Datong

June 28, 2011 By Jillian

It was surprising to see Buddha in China. Well, to see so much Buddha shall we say. We thought most of China’s cultural and religious art had been destroyed by the cultural revolution, but instead we found a good bit still existed, especially in far flung areas like Dunhuang in Western China. Of course the sites were damaged and looted, but as this statue from Datong shows, there was still plenty in tact to see.

There are three major movements of Buddhist art, each with it’s own distinct style: Southern (Theravada countries), Eastern (China) and Northern (Indo-Tibetan). This statue is of the Eastern style, but in Dunhuang we were able to see distinct examples of all three- an interesting historical and anthropological perspective.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Datong is about 4-5 hours by fast train from Beijing. Besides the caves, Datong is also home to the hanging monestary, a cool side trip into the countryside. Both can be done in one day, we negotiated a fare from the city to the monastery– the taxi drivers at the caves wanted ridiculous fares! The other types of Buddhist art, Southern and Northern, can be seen for celebrations of Sri Lanka holidays or on display in northern India/Western Tibet.

Where’s the money?

Photo: Dance Mask

Photo: Glass Soda Bottles

Faces of the World

Here are some of our favorite shots of people:

These photos were taken on our RTW trip March 2009- December 2010. Don’t forget to check out our Photo of the Day. Tell us your favorites and we’ll feature them in an upcoming post!

Photo: Buddha in Datong

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