the country fair

The Tunbridge World Fair started in 1867 and is a typical country fair: vegetable and livestock contests (including strange and large vegetables and obedience and strength skills for animals), fair rides and food (think: fried and greasy), and my favorite part of all: PIG RACES!!! Although a bit cruel to the pigs, they were hilarious to watch and something entirely new for me. There were three heats and the pigs all had names like "Dustin Hogman" and "Oscar Meyer". The first two heats were decently paced and actually ran around the track, but the third consisted of pot-bellied pigs who liked to stop and eat along the 125 foot track. Fun times!
this cow was much bigger than the ones in India!
largest pumpkin at 635 pounds
some very long and strange shaped veggies
go little piggies, go!
no pig race is complete without the pot-bellied ones

the next chapter

Some people have asked me to keep my blog going, so I'm going to do my best and also do my best to keep it interesting. I will also probably upload more photos from my travels as I recovered those lost files and have tons of other ones as well.

I moved up to Vermont a little over a month ago, thus beginning the newest chapter in my life: graduate school. I'm at the Vermont Law School, but NOT for a law degree, for environmental policy. The town is located in South Royalton, which is rather rural and quite a change, but a great one. The closest grocery store is about 25 minutes away, in New Hampshire, but other than that drawback, everything else is great. Below are some photos of the town, school, and immediately surrounding areas.
bridge over the White River looking back from town
the bridge over the river
the school, although you can barely see it because of the trees...
"downtown" - across the street is the "Green"
my house - the bottom floor is divided into 2 apartments and then 5 of us live on the second and third floors, this photo makes the house look awesome, but the inside is STILL under renovation (small stuff that will probably never be finished)
looking at the green from our living room
on the White River, just down the street
from Kent's Ledge, just above South Royalton

vietnam

From Saigon/Ho Chi Mihn City, I went on a couple of small tours. The first is of the Chi Cu Tunnels, which is where many locals lived underground during the war in a whole system of tunnels. We went through one that was enlarged for tourists and it was tiny. The second was a trip to the Mekong Delta. Enjoy!
booby trap
entrance to the tunnels
smoke holes for cooking - they spread it out so it just looked like fog to the US soldiers
Vietnamese woman in her boat
canoeing down a side canal

some serious stuff

I spent a day going to S-21, the high school-turned-prison/torture chambers during the Khmer Rouge, and the Killing Fields. I felt sick to my stomach all day and became teary-eyed more than a few times. Over 2 million people were killed during this regime from 1975-1979. The atrocities that some humans are willing and able to commit are incomprehensible. And it still exists today (most notably in Sudan - if you want to get involved with a reputable group that is working there savedarfur.org is a good one). I just don't understand how the world community continues to let genocide occur again and again... I'll get off my soap box before I really get on it, but see below.
some photos of the victims held at S-21 before they were executed
barbed wire covering the outdoor hallways at S-21
one of the small holding cells
skulls found in the Killing Fields (i spared you the close up shot I took where you can see the bullet holes and marks from the bludgeons; many people didn't get the mercy of a precious bullet -too expensive)
self explanatory
a mass grave
all these depressions are mass graves

ancient angkor

despite the amount of photos i posted, i wanted to post many, many more, but thought people might get a little tired of seeing so many photos of ancient temples. i spent 3 days wandering around the complexes and wasn't bored at all. to learn more about these ruins, check out this wikipedia page)

inside Angkor Wat
a view of the temple from the outside (largest religious building in the world)
2 faces in the temple Bayon (there are between 150-216 faces such as these in this temple, depending on the reporter - again, not the best photo, sorry!)
always a tree hugger, even in Cambodia!
the tree i'm hugging in the photos above - it's a beast!
a doorway in the most intricate temple, albeit one of the smallest
one of the carvings

more thailand

beautiful sunset from Railey Beach, Krabi (west coast) (it got even better, but I don't want people stealing my photos, sorry!)
blue water and green trees, taken from the back of a truck, Ko Tao (east coast island) what more could you want?
jeff on rope swing at waterfalls featured in "The Beach", although it looks quite different in the film
jeff (US) and me at another set of waterfalls in Khao Yai National Park (60 meters high - apparently 8 elephants fell to their death over these falls several years back)
our cute Thai guide at the same waterfalls

a new country!

I finally made it out of India and am now in Thailand. It's VERY different from India (but then again, every other place is) and is set up to make tourists' travel very easy. The beginning of the photos (my camera ran out of battery before I could finish this posting - dang).

reclinging Buddha - 45 meters long and what large feet!
outside the grand palace in Bangkok
Railey Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches i've ever seen

hopefully i'll be able to finish this post very soon and continue with other updates. off to cambodia tomorrow...

remaining bits of nepal and india...

here are a few last photos from nepal and india. enjoy!
mama rhino and baby! i spent the night in a tower in the jungle and woke up to see a mama rhino and her baby. shortly after this, about a million elephants with 4 people riding each one (so 4 million people!), descended on this poor pair
so cute!
the "toy train" in darjeeling, india. yay pollution!
these 2 young tibetan girls chatted with us for quite a while. their english was excellent!

scenes from the trail

Below are just a few scenes from the hike that I liked and thought I'd share.
part of the Khumbu Glacier
more of the Khumbu Glacier
just cool mountains with a relatively small glacier on top
the trail, mountains, and yaks
remember those Scholastic posters? this one was in a lodge around 14,000 feet

Everest Base Camp!

Base camp is quite a surreal place. It is mostly a tent city with no rhyme or reason to the scattering of tents. I'm not sure how many expeditions are there at the moment, but I know that the Chinese are keeping a close watch on everyone staying there because of the torch. There was even a bakery at base camp - probably the highest in the world, and a photos exhibit of glacial melt from the past several decades. I didn't stay very long, but it was interesting to see the spectacle. (Note: you can't see the summit of Everest from base camp.)


reminder: the peak behind me is not the summit to Everest (don't ask about the outfit)

this one is really dark, but you can see the famous/infamous Khumbu Icefall on the right side