Vagabumming » Nomadic Lifestyle

Taipei 101

Will — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:34:37 +0000

Jet lagged and overstimulated, I’m not up for writing a rodomontade on my trip to Taiwan. Instead, I’ll just put a photo gallery here with a few quick notes about yesterday afternoon’s outing to Taipei 101. At 508 meters, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world until 2004 when it was overtaken by Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It does, however, still hold the record for fastest elevator in the world, moving at ~37 mph. Sweet!

If you’re reading this from one of the various rss feeds/facebook…whatever other off-site reader, you will be able to get the full experience of the photo gallery by visiting vagabumming.com

If you’re reading at the site – clicking the “piclens” link below will bring the photos up in slideshow/shadow box style with captions/descriptions on some of the photos.

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Subtleties of a Tonal Language

Will — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:20:28 +0000

Looking ahead at working in a foreign country for at least a full year I am very excited about the language. It’s kind of a ‘bucket list’ item of mine to become conversationally fluent in a foreign language. I’m certain that I have a capacity to learn other languages. During my forays into Spanish speaking countries I have picked up quite a bit and have gone past “survival skills” to “basic conversational fluency”. I really would like to go beyond basic conversation though. To communicate humor, feelings, etc is what I strive for.

There are several languages spoken in Taiwan, due to various historical occupations as well as indigenous languages that have somehow survived. The official language of Taiwan, however, is Mandarin Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. A few weeks ago I didn’t really have a firm grasp on what that meant, exactly, but alas, the Lonely Planet guide to Taiwan has come to build my understanding. From the guidebook:

by altering the voice’s pitch within a syllable, the meaning of a word is completely changed. Getting your tones wrong can have embarrassing consequences – wǒ gǎnmào, for example, means ‘I’ve caught a cold’, while wǒ gàn māo means ‘I copulate with cats’!

Here kitty kitty

I’ve managed to actually figure out what each of the different types of accent marks indicate as far as intonation are concerned. Baby steps.

In Awe of the Possibilities

Will — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:10:24 +0000

Vagabumming in Asia perchance?

Yes. I’m in absolute awe at the possibilities that life has presented me. I mean, I’ve had it pretty good for a long time, but I’ve really found myself appreciating that fact for the past year and a half or so. I’m so completely blissed out for such long periods of time that sometimes I begin to worry that I’m manic. But no, no mania here, I’ve just been blessed with a wonderful life.

So, this fact that life is wonderful, I’ve found, can’t be taken as a small piece. It can’t be isolated from the rest of my life. That’s to say that decisions that I’ve made and actions that I’ve taken all came together to put me exactly where I am right now at this very moment. While there have certainly been rough patches in the past; and I often think that if I would have known then what I know now that I would have done things differently, well, I think I’ve abandoned that line of thinking too. All of those events that I may have resented before have contributed to my current state and I am unwilling to give this up, regardless of what any alternate past may have produced.

Right about now, you’re wondering, “what the hell, Will, what are these possibilities you speak of and why all the introspection?” Well, wow, where to start? As you likely know, I’ve been doing contract work in Antarctica for the past six years or so. I’ve done some amazing things, including spending a winter at The South Pole, a winter at Palmer Station and several seasons at McMurdo Station as well as visiting quite a selection of field camps and research sites on the continent of Antarctica. I can remember, very clearly, how completely overjoyed I was when I the possibility of working in Antarctica was first presented to me. Something that I hadn’t ever even considered before, something that was far beyond my wildest dreams ended up becoming a reality and is now a huge part of who I am. I remember last winter at Palmer Station when, for just a moment, my mind was able to really grasp how utterly privileged I was to be doing what I was doing and getting paid for it. Sailing INSIDE a volcanic caldera who gets to do that at their job? I never thought I would, that’s for sure.

Now, if the job itself isn’t special enough, what about the time off and travel? During my long periods of time off I have been privileged to surf in Mexico, ski in Canada, Wyoming, Colorado, France, Norway and even Kashmir. I’ve seen what is surely one of the most macabre churches in the world, traveled all over central Europe by rail, visited the lochs of Scotland, gazed upon Big Ben, communed with nature at Machu Picchu, been amazed at the passion exhibited by Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, stood in awe at the power of nature at Iguazu Falls, been fascinated by the remnants of an ancient society at Easter Island, surfed in Ecuador and found a home (of sorts) in Hawaii.

I was all set to try and get myself hired to go on an overland traverse on Antarctica for this upcoming season. Yes, 80 days of staring through a windshield at barren, flat white, eating T.V. dinners and pooping in a bucket sounded very appealing to me, like a grand adventure even. But alas, the universe has thrown something even more exciting in my direction. So, it looks like I’m taking at least a one-year hiatus from The Ice.

What’s Next Then?

Well, I pursued and have been offered a position in Taiwan. I’m not entirely comfortable posting much detail here, but the position is at least related to the same type of work I’ve been doing and is almost exactly what I was doing in Korea (if you knew me in those days think BIG TRUCK!!).

So, there you have it. Brand new adventure coming up and I expect to post more details about my upcoming move as they become available to me. For now, if you’re interested in the exact location you can see it on a map here: Kaohsiung (pronounced “COW-shung”). If you haven’t already, might I suggest you subscribe via RSS or you can even get email updates. Both of these services are free, don’t include any advertising and are a great way to keep up to date with what I have posted.

P.S.
I am SO looking forward to taking a surfboard with me to my next job!

Easter Island!

Will — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:30:09 +0000

My travels in South America wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Easter Island (a.k.a. Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua depending on your preferred language). Few places on the face of the earth offered me what Easter Island did in mystery and intrigue. The statues (called moai) have had a great deal of appeal to me ever since I first became aware of their existence. I rank Easter Island right up there with Stonehenge in my “great mysteries of the world” list.

Moai in the quarry

I had seen pictures of the iconic moai of Rapa Nui before and was very intrigued. Of course, I have read snippets about them here and there so I had an idea of what learned scholars figured them to be, but nearly everything that is known about the existence of the moai and the original residents of Rapa Nui is based mostly in hypothesis and theory. I think that it is wonderful that the true meaning behind the statues on Easter Island may never be known and will be kept a secret from humankind for the rest of eternity.

Rapa Nui is a relatively small island about 2500 miles off the west coast of Chile. The island is all by itself and is often touted as the most isolated place on earth. To give that some perspective, in these modern times, that’s a five-hour flight with nothing between take-off and landing but open ocean. During that five hour flight I remember being slightly annoyed by a crying baby on the airplane and I remember being a bit uncomfortable due to the lack of legroom. Annoyed and uncomfortable only until I start to think about the ancient people who first came to Rapa Nui. I have no frame of reference to help me even get a vague understanding for what these people must have gone through to get there. How many days (weeks, months even?) must one spend on a canoe to go…2500 miles on a previously uncharted course? If I was uncomfortable and annoyed on a five hour flight, these people must have been absolutely mad after endless days at sea in a canoe. Being exposed for that long on the ocean, they surely encountered bad weather. Inevitably they lost people, supplies, and food. What about water? Where does one get drinking water on a crossing like that? And after the ordeal of getting there…they find…NOTHING! Easter Island is fairly small and rugged. Sure, there is evidence that it was much more forested when the original Rapa Nui arrived but beyond trees and lava there isn’t much to the island.

So, after much suffering they land on an isolated island, have no external stimulation…what better way to pass the time than carve some statues out of lava. Oh..and then, after the monumental task of carving them, they move them to their platforms (called Ahu)…which are MILES away from the quarry. Madness. Pure Madness, I’m sure, is what drove these people to do this work and eventually de-forest themselves nearly out of existence.

photo gallery works best when viewed at vagabumming.com

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El Tatio Geyser Field

Will — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:32:12 +0000

On my final day in San Pedro de Atacama I took a trip to the El Tatio geyser field. This particular outing was highly recommended by other travelers that I had met in San Pedro and Chileans absolutely raved about the greatness of the geysers of El Tatio.

A hot spring at El Tatio

This tour departed at 4 A.M. in order to get to the geyser field at sunrise – when the air is cold and the light is soft, lending dramatic effect to the steam rising – which will lose much of its appeal as the ambient air temperature climbs. The day’s highlight was swimming (or “hotpotting” as it was called when I did it in Yellowstone) in a hot spring – and at El Tatio it is a sanctioned event! (unlike Yellowstone). This geyser field is at very high altitude and as such, the air temperature is pretty cold – so getting out of the hot spring wasn’t all that enjoyable.

photo gallery works best when viewed at vagabumming.com

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Lagunas Altiplanicas

Will — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:08:45 +0000

On my second day in San Pedro de Atacama and following my Valle de la Luna tour I took a full day trip to the nearby Lagunas Altiplanicas or high plains lakes. For me, the main attraction wasn’t the high plains lakes at all, but rather the Salar de Atacama as an alternative to visiting the Salar de Uyuni (you may recall from my last post that I didn’t have time to visit Uyuni)

The early flamingo gets the….shrimp?

The tour departed at 6 A.M. in order to get to the Salar de Atacama (Atacama salt flat in English) early enough to view the flamingos in the salt lakes.

The Salar is a very interesting landscape. The high mineral concentration is caused by a lack of drainage and over the years minerals (amongst them vast amounts of salt and lithium) have been deposited in the basin by glaciation and runoff. This area is an extremely inhospitable environment, yet certain species have adapted to live here. Quite remarkable!

photo gallery works best when viewed at vagabumming.com

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The Atacama Desert & Valle de la Luna

Will — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:30:07 +0000

So, after leaving Peru and taking care of the border formalities near Arica, Chile I really desired to press onward into Chile. I spent a few hours in Arica – basically killing time and drinking beer waiting for the next bus to the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

The trip to San Pedro was an overnight jaunt of about 11 hours. I arrived groggy and was more than happy to accept the first offer of accommodation, especially since it was very near the bus stop and much less expensive than I was led to believe prices would be in this desert outpost. A simple room cost me the equivalent of $8 (USD) and the place had free wifi….perfect!

My first order of business was to investigate tour options to Bolivia’s huge salt flat – the Salar de Uyuni. I had heard rave reviews from fellow travelers about it’s wonders and about Bolivia in general. The problem was, that the holidays were coming up and so I had, for the first time since this trip started, pre-booked transportation, so I was running short on time. The tours available were all three-day, two-night or longer and there was just no way for me to take one and still have time to get to Santiago for the next leg of my journey.

But Wait! Chile has alien landscapes too!

Valle de la Luna; near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

I opted, instead, to take some day-tours around San Pedro de Atacama. The first of which was an afternoon/evening trip in and around the Valle de la Luna. Our guide on this particular tour was a former miner and had learned a great deal from the geologists at his company. He was a wealth of information about the processes of volcanic eruptions and ash deposits, glaciation, erosion and plate movements – all the forces that have carved out this landscape. The tour was absolutely fantastic, interesting and educational and ended with watching the sunset over the desert. It was a pretty spectacular sight!

photo gallery works best when viewed at vagabumming.com

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Machu Picchu

Will — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:55:53 +0000

For something that wasn’t part of my original South America travel plans, Machu Picchu turned out to be an absolutely wonderful surprise. The ruin is set in an absolute gorgeous location, it is very well preserved and the construction is very impressive. The fact that it is at high altitude left me in awe at what these ancient people were able to accomplish without modern day tools and conveniences.

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How (not) to independently tour Machu Picchu.

So, you want to visit Machu Picchu yourself? There are several available options from all-inclusive tours to DIY hiking trips. The option I chose is somewhere in the middle. I handled all the arrangements myself, but my transportation was all diesel powered.

There’s a good reason that Machu Picchu stayed hidden for so many years. It’s located in a remote, nearly inaccessible area. If you are an avid hiker or have some spiritual need that you wish to fulfill, you might consider researching trekking along the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu. Otherwise, arranging transportation for yourself can be a pretty fun adventure.

The Train

Peru Rail operates service between Cusco (Poroy) and Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes). There are 3 classes of service: Backpacker; well suited to the no-frills traveler, Vistadome; you get a car with windows in the ceiling and food/drink service are included and last is the Hiram Bingham service, which I think is for royalty and heads of state.

Train service is also provided between Ollantaytamba and Aguas Calientes with greater frequency and reduced cost.

What I did was find a shared taxi service from Cusco to Ollantaytamba. I overnighted in Ollantaytamba and caught a 5:30 AM train to Aguas Calientes. What I should have done was got myself all the way to Aguas Calientes and spent the night there. Once in Aguas Calientes it is necessary to buy your entrance pass for Machu Picchu (I’m fairly certain they aren’t available at the monument itself) and you need to purchase a bus ticket to go from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. You can, of course, walk if you feel so inclined. Bus service begins at 5:00AM.

Guide books and articles I have read all write off both Ollantaytamba and Aguas Calientes as a horrible, but a necessary evil to getting to Machu Picchu. Despite the fact that they are complete tourist traps they still retain a “mountain town” character that I find charming.

There are several advantages to getting to Machu Picchu early in the morning. First is if you can manage to get to the top of Wayna (Huayna) Picchu before sunrise, you can get beautiful light for your photos. 2nd is that it gets a bit crowded later in the morning. I was there in the low season so the crowds were bearable, but I’m led to believe that from May – September there are often shoulder-shoulder people.

At the entrance, I was offered guide service, but my best negotiating couldn’t get the price below 100 soles (~$30USD) so I opted out…which was probably a wise choice as that left me free to climb Wayna Picchu and I can always read more about Machu Picchu on wikipedia.

For my return trip to Cusco I opted for Vistadome service on Peru Rail. This was quite possibly the worst thing I have endured in all of my travels, but that’s for another post.

Cusco

Will — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:59:39 +0000

From Huanchacho to Cusco was 35 hours elapsed time on a bus. Of course, I did break up the trip with a stopover in Arequipa. Bus service in Peru is quite a bit more pleasant than in Ecuador and most of my journey from Huanchaco to Cusco was in the first class cabin with large, fully reclining seats. Meals are provided and there is an attendant, much like what you would expect on a flight. The last nine hours of my journey to Cusco, however, was pretty hellish. First class was sold out for several days in a row – so I went ahead and purchased a ticket in the semi-cama, upstairs class (smaller seats, less legroom and ¾ reclining). This probably would have been fine for any other nine-hour bus ride, however, I had the extreme misfortune to be seated next to an absolute mass of humanity that spilled well into my seat. This made it nearly impossible to sleep or even re-adjust my body position from time to time. In short, I was miserable for the entire trip.

If Arequipa was unimpressive, Cusco, in my opinion is down right revolting. There is some stunning architecture left over from the Spanish colonial days and the city is situated in a fairly gorgeous setting, but the ugly and soullessness far outweighs the beautiful. In the special white man tourist areas of town (Plaza de Armas and San Blas) the touts and hawkers are over-aggressive to the point that I began completely avoiding the area and it would appear that all of the eateries and hotels in these areas are owned by foreigners so the Cusquenos aren’t directly benefitting from the tourist trade.

Side Note – Cusco’s Flag:

Shortly after my arrival in Cusco and immediately after finding a place to store my luggage I set out to arrange transportation to Machu Picchu. I witnessed the beginning of some sort of protest march, but the first thing that I saw were people carrying the flag of Cusco and my immediate thoughts were “wow, a gay pride march here in Cusco. That’s pretty remarkable and surprisingly progressive.”

My mistake, sorry.

Oh….and despite what the last couple of posts may sound like, I really am enjoying my time. I’m just not much of a ‘city person’.

Chan Chan

Will — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:12:46 +0000

Chan Chan, a slightly obscure ruin in northern Peru was on my list of things that I would like to see, probably BECAUSE it is somewhat obscure. The towns of Trujillo and nearby Huanchaco were also on my list of places I might want to stop in. I first learned of Trujillo when I was looking for a place with the perfect year-round temperature. Daily highs in Trujillo seem to be between 79 and 81 degrees (F) every day of the year. Nighttime lows are near 60. In my opinion, that’s pretty close to perfect.

So, when I decided it was time to depart Mancora I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Trujillo was a nine-hour bus ride away. A very appropriate amount of time to spend on a bus in my opinion. During the taxi ride from Trujillo to Huanchaco we passed right by Chan Chan. Things were really falling into place. While I was having breakfast one morning in Huanchaco, a lady came by presenting herself as a tour guide; I inquired about a trip to Chan Chan and that was it…the final brick was set.

Ancient Civilization
So, what is Chan Chan? It is a ruin of the largest pre-Columbian settlement in all of South America. It is built entirely of adobe. An extensive canal system was dug to bring fresh water from nearby rivers for drinking and irrigation. The original people of Chan Chan are apparently thought to be descendants of Polynesians and it is believed that they came here on the Humboldt current (the cold water current responsible for the pleasant temperatures here) from Easter Island. The wooden sculptures made by the inhabitants (Chimu) very closely resemble the Moai of Easter Island. At the height of its existence some 30,000 people lived at Chan Chan. The ruins extend for over 20 square km.

Carvings Adorn the Walls at Chan Chan

So What Happened?
The “mud captial” of Peru existed for some 600 years from approximately 900 A.D. to 1470 A.D. It is believed that in 1470 the Chimu people were conquered by the Incas and that the architects and scholars from Chan Chan were taken to design and build Macchu Picchu. So, I suppose the argument could be made that without the Polynesians, Macchu Picchu would have never been built.