http://ethankbirchard.com/blog In which I travel with my girlfriend to find out if thirty really is the new twenty. Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:33:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en After two months of life-swallowing work with a local Congressional campaign this fall, my wrap-up post on our year abroad is long, long overdue. In fact, the concept of "wrapping up" this kind of year is fairly ridiculous to begin with, since if you could wrap it up, you probably ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=88 This was the sight that greeted us as we tromped down from our hillside cabana to Ao Phranang (a beach in the Railay area of Krabi Province), on our first morning there. We were pretty happy with it.     Railay is a popular rock-climbing destination, but we also found a couple sweet ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=87 We spend the better part of three days staying in Siem Reap, from where we visited the temples at Angkor Wat, the spiritual and physical seat of power of the Khmer Empire for hundreds of years (from approximately 800 - 1400 AD). Angkor, with its sprawling complex of ancient temples ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=84 The entrance gate to Ta Phrom, a grand ruin being taken back by the jungle, and made famous by "Tomb Raider," an action movie filmed here and featuring Angelina Jolie.                         At the enormous and beautiful Angkor Wat, the jewel of the Angkor area and the largest religious structure in the world, ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=85 Although we scheduled them more like punctuation marks to our other destinations, Hong Kong and Bangkok are fabulous international cities that we really enjoyed -- especially Hong Kong. These were just a few of the lanterns hanging at a streetside market.   Having been held by the British well into the 1990s, ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=86 In honor of a memorable 2008 Olympics, Lacey and I have invented a new Olympic event.  It's called the Alternative Triathlon.  Here's how it works: At the end of each Olympics (perhaps during the closing ceremonies?) three randomly selected events for the following Olympics' Alternative Triathlon are announced.  For instance, it ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=82 Yesterday, exactly one year after leaving the United States, I returned to it.  My excitement was tempered, though, because a typhoon and solidly booked flights (presumably full of other folks returning from the Olympics) is keeping Lacey in Hong Kong, where she was supposed to have a short layover from ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=83 Friday, August 21 The Event: Men’s 10 Meter Platform Diving (Qualifying Round) The Competitors: Thirty divers from about 20 countries. The Venue: The Water Cube! The Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest were the two venues we’d heard the most about in the leadup to the Olympics.  But while the exterior and interior ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=75 Thursday, August 21 The Event: Athletics (various events) The Competitors: Too many to list The Venue: The Bird's Nest!!  In some ways the venue was the star of our night.  Although I have no architectural expertise whatsoever, for me the stadium's curves conveyed an impression of uplifting contrasts, both soft and soaring, ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=74 As a little diversion from my Olympic "reporting," I thought I'd share some incredible menu translations that Lacey and I copied down from the menu of "Mao Jia" (Mao's House) restaurant in Shenzhen, a city outside Hong Kong where we were unexpectedly forced to spend a night during our travels, ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=73 As I wrote in a previous post, our travels in Southeast Asia took us to the Yangshuo countryside in Southern China's Guangxi Province, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and finally to Krabi, on the Andaman Coast in Southern Thailand (plus a day each in Hong Kong and Bangkok). All were ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=72 Tuesday, August 19 The Event: Women's Volleyball Quarterfinal The Competitors: China vs. Russia, USA vs. Italy The Venue: Capital Gymnasium, an older stadium very close to where we're staying, which has been nicely remodeled for the Olympics. What we knew: We had cheered on as the US Women's team came from behind to ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=71 So if you only have tickets to five Olympic events, where do you watch all the other ones?  Before the Games started, I didn't spend much time thinking about how we'd watch all those events that we didn't have tickets to.  Turns out I was right not to worry.  Here ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=70 Sunday, August 17 The Event: Gymnastics - Men's Floor Finals, Women's Vault Finals, Men's Pommel Horse Finals, and Women's Floor Finals The Competitors: There were no US men in the floor finals, but the vault and pommel horse each featured one American, and the women's floor exercise had two.  Every event ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=69 Saturday, August 16 The Event: Football (Soccer) Quarterfinal The Competitors: Belgium vs. Italy The Venue: Beijing Worker's Stadium is an older stadium, not in the same part of town as the new Olympic area.  Still, it felt like everything the Olympics should be, with a lot of fanfare, security, and an extremely ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=68 It’s our last week in Qingdao, but with our goodbyes nicely spaced out and our final classes practically teaching themselves, we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.  It’s hard not to, with the most travel-intensive month of our lives (to date) just around the corner.  And because of very ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=66 “Suibian” is a popular Chinese word meaning something like “anything, random, whatever.”  For me, it’s also a convenient cover-up for my inability to thematically tie the following items of interest together.  So instead, I present you with a series of hard-hitting and completely suibian reports about various aspects of our ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=63 Travel in general, and China in particular, is all about surprises. And surprise was the common thread between witnessing hundreds of brides being photographed on a single beach one day here in Qingdao and finding ourselves eating bugs for dinner in a tiny Shandong town.  Pretty suibian, but why not?   First, ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=65 When I walked out the door of the school building after my morning class I was greeted by a long line of somber-looking students and teachers, ranged beneath a red banner stamped with stark white characters. The banner hung over a large wooden box on a narrow table. ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=62 Our memorable travels in local Shandong Province, accompanied by my parents, began in this ancient and revered Chinese town, birthplace of Confucius over 2,500 years ago. We are big fans of round doorways.   A side gate of the ancient Confucius temple.   The temple complex is simple and serene.       Tourists sillhouetted on the platform Confucius ... http://ethankbirchard.com/blog/?p=60