a preview

tommorrow i head into the mekong delta for 3-5 days. then i grab a boat to pho quoc island, the still largely undeveloped vietnamese island paradise, where i'll be taking a 1 week vacation from my travels.

on the 11th, i fly to signapore and from there my malaysian oddessy begins.

how's this for a slick deal: i found a flight from saigon to singapore for $6. i rule.

photos

yes, i've finally started attaching photos. more over the next few days...

more posts

ok, i'm really working hard today. a few more entries. just go to the index.

i hope someone is still reading these. please leave your comments here.

an obscenely long new entry

http://www.ballofdirt.com/entries/5262/45179.html

meta blog

ok, i've finally figured out what to do with this site, at least for now.

this site will be the "real time" site, where i'll post things that aren't simply retellings of each days events, as well as links to new ballofdirt entries as they become available (which is becoming more important given my erratic posting schedule). thus it makes more sense to visit this site rather than the ball of dirt site. and people can leave comments on this site related to the corresponding journal entries on ballofdirt.

and by the way, i'm in saigon (or ho chi minh city for you commies) now. the 30th is the 30th anniversary of the fall of saigon, and the entire city is being prepared for this massive event. the only problem is that a good portion of the saigonese population lament this event, to say the least. in the words of one of my motorbike taxi drivers: "i hate the fucking communists". another told me of his 8 years in a re-education camp and the continued discrimination against him today.

connected again in hanoi

finally a chance to fix this blog.

china was blocking this site due to its no holds barred political commentary, hence no activity when my trip began. i then moved on to the remotest parts of laos. since i was staying in places where the locals would sometimes mistake me for a bad spirit (i'm not making this up), and where electricity is a newfangled thing fancy people use, you can bet there weren't a lot of opportunities to connect.

my blog was moved to

http://www.ballofdirt.com/journeys/5262.html

but now that i'm in vietnam, and ballofdirt doesn't allow comments and seems to be down a lot (like now), i'm probably gonna move back here.

my other blog

while hunting for a blog home, i almost went with www.ballofdirt.com. i even tested them out by journaling the first few days of my last trip to s.e. asia. i was surprised how vividly i remembered it, since i often can't remember what i did the day before.

the adventures of pepe lucho

ballofdirt has some cool features, only there's no option to leave comments, so i went with blogger. maybe i'll use ballofdirt as the post-trip archival site.

goodbye home

i am leaving my current home forever. i'll miss the view.



that's the golden gate bridge and san francisco across the bay

the plan

this trip focuses on asia & the indian subcontinent (which, though part of asia, always gets its own mention, and who am i to fight this convention). duration: one year, give or take.

i have a one way ticket from san francisco to beijing on feb 16th. i wanted to leave on the 14th so when people ask me "when do you leave?" i would say, with solemn conviction, "valentines day", leading the inquisitor to assume there's some meaning behind the date--that maybe i'm fleeing a woman who has spurned me or betrayed me or has otherwise broken my heart. in reality i'm only really fleeing work and responsibility and drudgery and the bush administration. but i plan on being spurned sometime during the trip, so stay tuned for that. it's really just a question of what nationality she'll be. i'm thinking french. built in panache. "curse you claudette, you heartless tart!" i'll come up with something better when the time comes, i promise.

the plan, which is almost entirely subject to change, looks like this:

china: mid feb-mid march
northern laos: march
vietnam: april
malaysia/indonesia: may-august
nepal: sept
india: oct-feb

other possibilities along the way include: burma, east timor, papua new guinea

this itenerary avoids the most extreme heat/cold as well as the various monsoon seasons. the exception will be beijing, where i will freeze my ass off for about a week before heading into more temperate southern china. the picture in my guidebook of the great wall covered in snow looks pleasant enough, and the crowds should be light.