TravelStream™ news feed for member beardsley on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/beardsley en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:15:51 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/3/1215014940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/3/1215014940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/3/1215014940/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:15:51 -0400 Yellowstone and Montana on the fly...

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Boulder, Wyoming, United States

Even the most mundane things take on a beauty given the proper lighting and background, but this rig with the clouds in the background really talks to me.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/christmas_trek/1139866560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/christmas_trek/1139866560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/christmas_trek/1139866560/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:41:55 -0400 Christmas in Ko Tao: Touts, Scrums, Ripoffs, the odd breakdowns (only the vehicular sort, I hope) and Sairee beach. I can think of many worse ways to spend the holiday.

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Bangkok, Thailand

From the sublimely beautiful to the grit-filled, humid air typical of the city, Bangkok is a delicious set of contrasts. My first experience in Bangkok was the usual midnight arrival, but when my luggage was delayed I decided to walk outside for a breath of 'fresh' albeit humid air at about 4 am. Imagine my amazement as the sun rose behind me and the Wat to the west of me began to glow, incandescently, red, green and gold! I was mesmerized, the beauty was simply breathtaking. About that time the highway crew began to burn some weeds upwind of me, and the juxtaposition of the superlative beauty of the Wat with the smell of burning weeds and dog shit will stay with me to the end of my days.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128895140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128895140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128895140/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:36:34 -0400 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

Cambodia is usually known for its horrendous killing fields and the incredibly evil, and pathetically idiotic, genocide perpetrated upon the people of Cambodia by Pol Pot and his henchmen. Now the emphasis is on tourism, and Angkor Wat is simply phenomenal. Half the fun of being in Cambodia, tho, is traveling around. By land or river. It is a blast to see just how many ways a simple trip can be interrupted... The kids, though, are just too cool. Once you get away from the towns, they are shocked and dismayed to have a farang actually pay attention to them... 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/christmas_trek/1214962200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/christmas_trek/1214962200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/christmas_trek/1214962200/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:34:26 -0400 Christmas in Ko Tao: Touts, Scrums, Ripoffs, the odd breakdowns (only the vehicular sort, I hope) and Sairee beach. I can think of many worse ways to spend the holiday.

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Ko Phangan, Thailand

Bottle Beach may be a bit more crowded today, but it is still a beautiful sunrise beach with excellent sand and a great crowd. The picture was taken where the long-tail picks you up and takes you to the beach, very beautiful, but what the picture doesn't tell you is that just to the right of the picture is 100 yards of fish drying racks. The place is beautiful and stinks to high heaven...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128895560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128895560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128895560/tpod.html Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:06:03 -0500 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Saigon, Vietnam

  It was odd in the extreme to walk the streets of the Citadel, 30-some years after my cousin Ron walked these very streets. He told me years ago, "Mark, you have to see Viet Nam, gorgeous women, great food, phenomenal beaches, decent beer... And you'll be the first member of our family to go there without a weapon!" He has since passed away, so I thought of him often as I waited out a rainstorm, imagined what he went through as his platoon fought their way past the courtyard with the flower pot I photographed. A little later I began to wonder just what it must have been like for the Vietnamese soldiers and citizens, from 1941 til 1975, nearly uninterrupted war, followed by a fractious reunification, then a war with China... They have achieved a heck of a lot in just 25 years.  I told several locals, (after I got to know them a bit) my cousin's comments about Viet Nam, and to a person, they laughed and welcomed me to their country. They are so proud, and so hopeful for the future of their kids...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128898860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128898860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128898860/tpod.html Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:35:45 -0500 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Washington DC, United States

To return to the US is oddly jarring, the familiarity itself is unfamiliar, after months of hearing surrounding conversations as babble, to be able to understand the conversations around me is slightly 'voyeuristic'.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128894960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128894960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128894960/tpod.html Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:28:58 -0500 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Vientianne, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

Ahhh... Vientianne is a comfortable little city of great civility and absolutely no ambition. The city is blessed with one of my favorite bars anywhere, Kop Chai Deu, which is right next to the fountain. Outdoor seating, slow poured Beer Lao, and a crowd that mixes Hong Kong water project engineers, French tourists, Japanese photographers, Russian thugs, young ladies of indeterminate employment from all over the world, Lonely Planet travelers, and local Lao young people there to watch the show! If you go down to the Mekong to eat, whatever you do, don't order the Laab Muu 'family style'! It is raw pork, served kind of ceviche style with a very flavorful marinade, delicious, but it does hideous things to western digestive tracts...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1076885220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1076885220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1076885220/tpod.html Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:22:26 -0500 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Khota Bharu, Malaysia

I am sure that there are redeeming features but on the surface KB is a worn, dirty city with the only positive points being its proximity to the ferry to the Perhentians, and the fact that its people are pretty cool, despite the sex segregated cash registers. I didn't realize I was in the womens line at the grocery store until they had a male clerk close his line and bring his cash box over and ring up my goods. I think I would have moved to the other line if they had pointed to the hijab silhouette over the woman cashier, but it was kind of offputting. I was in a bit of a snit for a few minutes, but then reality dawned on me, I was in their country and they are going to run it how they want. Had a nice encounter with a pair of sweet girls at a Bata store, talked with a few very friendly locals at a seafood cafe, interrupted only by a rather large rat that ran over my toes mid-way through my meal. Retired to my hotel slightly inebriated and rather pleased to be alive.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1075502640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1075502640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1075502640/tpod.html Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:20:37 -0500 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Bangkok, Thailand

Another midnight arrival in humid Bangkok, the obligatory shuffle to Customs, the tourist scrum at the welcome area and the line for the taxi to KSR. As I zip by the Wat to the west of the airport, I remember my first morning in Thailand several years earlier. I  had spotted the Wat from the airport and with the rising sun painting brilliantly I schlepped my way over streets, under bridges and finally got close to the Wat. It simply glowed in the first light of the day, red, gold and green, blinding and beautiful. As I soaked in this treasure, the wind shifted and I was covered with the smoke of a burning ditch, redolent of burning grass and dog shit... That disconnect, great beauty and earthy grit, seems to sum up Thailand for me.It is great to be back!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128897120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128897120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beardsley/rtw_2004/1128897120/tpod.html Sun, 08 Oct 2006 21:11:50 -0400 I was lucky enough to be able to spend 8 months using planes, trains and automobiles to circle the world. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Budapest, Hungary

Budapest sits on a beautiful curve of the Danube River, has beautiful rolling hills and gorgeous parks, the architecture is stunning, and I have never warmed to it. Not sure why, I've been there a couple times and I have never had a really pleasant memory of the city, which is a pity, because it is a beautiful place. The one thing I am really negative about Hungary is their driving, they have an incredibly high percentage of people on the road that simply do not know how to drive! Or there is a very large drunk driving problem...
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