where's wolmut?: March 2012

Saturday, March 24, 2012

mmmmmmm maldives

the maldivian casper

gotta have a chopper on the back

monkey see, monkey do

emil says:

if you believe in global warming and thus elevating sea levels than you better get to these islands before they are gonzo. the highest point on any of the 1,192 islands is a whopping 8 feet and according to wikipedia that puts them underwater in about the year 2100. the maldives are a stupendously spectacular archipelago and that which you see and stand upon are the peaks of a vast underwater mountain chain. the snorkeling and scuba are at another level, even relegating the great barrier reef to second place. that said, i just don't know if i'd come here from the united states ever again. 30 hours of flight time from the west coast for essentially 'hawaii on crack' seems a bit much. but if you are thinking of going to eastern africa, dubai, india, sri lanka or nepal than stopping at these glorious little nuggets for a few days is a must. besides distance another thing that's a bit off putting is the fact that the maldivian population (350k people) resides nearly exclusively on one tiny island (2 square miles) called male where buildings are in tatters and folks are living on top of one another. how convenient that the airport to the maldives was built on a separate island so that tourists get ferried from the airport directly to the fabulous island destination of their choice and thus skip the entire cultural and ethnic character of the maldives. granted tourists flock in to hawaii and out of hawaii in much the same way but in this case it's multimillion dollar yachts all over the place docking just outside the view of the rather bleak third world capital island of male (side note: the current president was part of a successful military coup in 2008). it's awesome to have visited and it's unforgettable but there is a marginally darker side to this place, if you chose to look.

lifegaurd on duty

laurel looking for that russian oil tycoon

arriving at kurumba resort

laurel says:

damn maldives. why do you have to be so crazy beautiful and yet so far from the usa? i fear you have ruined all my future beach vacations. before i arrived here i thought that pictures of the maldives had to have been airbrushed. the sand can't really be that white, the water can't really be that blue and the resorts can't really be that spectacular. spoiler alert: they are. this place is pure paradise. i don't think i have ever seen a prettier place. and because the islands are so remote you get to have them nearly all to yourself. we barely saw a soul while lounging on the beach all day. the only sounds you hear are the occasional sea plane buzzing overhead. and when you go snorkeling it is just you- mano y mano with thousands of tropical fish, reef sharks, eagle rays and moray eels. for me, the insane water clarity, variety of coral and quantity of fish even outmatch the great barrier reef. and when it is time to re-emerge into society for dinner, the people watching is equally entertaining. the clientele is 80% chinese and russian, 20% euro and 0% americano. so suffice to say, the frocks are out of this world. money can't buy good taste. forget the 1%, this is where the .001% hangs out, here the resorts are for the paupers as the real players roll on 150 foot yachts complete with helicopter pads. it is quite a scene. tragically this is one of those places that we may never make it back to given that it is exactly half way around the world from california and these pups are sinking into the indian ocean faster than rick santorum can say 'global warming.' so i am so glad that we got the chance to experience them now. thanks emi for letting me splurge on our once in a lifetime maldives trip! i promise the sticker shock (and sunburn) will wear off soon.

better than gilligan's island

walking the plank

Saturday, March 17, 2012

sri lanka-licious

hiking thru tea plantations

surfing mirissa beach (emil is still stuck out there)

elephants at yala national park

ceylon tea plantation

tea factory gangstas

sipping coconuts in galle

the galle face hotel

laurel says:
visiting sri lanka has never been on my "must see" list. so when our buddy rob (better known in certain circles as 'hot rob') sent us an email and said, "hey guys want to meet me in sri lanka march 1" i didn't have a lot of expectations. plus he said it would be good training for our upcoming trip to india since sri lanka was like "india light." turns out, sri lanka is a pretty spectacular place. the small size of the island- about the size of ireland- makes it a relative breeze to explore. and there is such a huge diversity of sights to take in. we started our adventure in galle, an old fort town once used by the dutch to export cinnamon. the town retains a strong colonial vibe and the sunsets over the indian ocean are out of this world. our next stop was the beach town of mirissa where a handful of beach bungalows and sand in your toes restaurants offer a very laid back, undiscovered feel. it was tempting to just hole up on the beach and stay for days, but sri lanka had so many other spots to offer that we had to keep moving. the next destination- yala national park- turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. yala has one of the highest concentrations of leopards in the world and you can do africa-type safaris thru the national park in hopes of spotting one in the wild. we must have had our stars aligned, because we eye-witnessed an incredible feat. a stunning leopard ran right past our jeep, scaled a tree and killed a very unlucky monkey right before our eyes. it all happened within about 15 seconds but the adrenaline rush lasted for hours afterwards. after having our circle of life moment, it was time to beat the heat and head for the hill country. the entire inner core of sri lanka is laden with rolling hills covered in tea plantations. it makes for some fantastic views, delicious cups of ceylon tea and much to my shagrin- huge hikes. one of the best parts about having our buddy join us is that it forces you to do things you may not do on your own. and by that i mean waking up at 2.30am and scaling sri pada- the 4th tallest mountain in sri lanka and the main pilgrim trek for buddhists each spring. three and a half hours, 5200 stairs and 2200 meters later you are rewarded with a magical sunrise overlooking the valley below. was it worth it considering i could barely walk 2 days later? questionable. but there were 80 year old women, make that barefoot 80 year old women, making the trek along with us so i can hardly complain. we capped off the trip with 2 blissful nights at the historic galle face hotel in colombo. this grand dame has been around since 1864 and has hosted just about every vip who has breezed thru sri lanka from the rockefellers to the wolmuts. overall just a fabulous trip. no doubt it is a trek to get here from the usa. but the kind people, stunning landscapes and diversity of activities make it more than worth it. thank you to rob for making it all happen!

fellow pilgrim at sri pada

summit of adam's peak (sri pada)

emil says:
thanks to my buddy rob for suggesting we meet him here in 'india-lite'. what a kik-asss unique place to see. coming from sanitized japan laurel understandably only cried two times at the visa office in the imposing capital of colombo. its got that same honk honk traffic and nowhere to hide with a million degrees of heat hitting you in the mush. its a lot to handle coming from bow to your sensei japan. sri lanka is a rather small landmass with an intense amount of geographic diversity making for a fabulous rush of stimuli in a brief period of time. every 3 hours of travel by motorcycle, train, tuk-tuk, or van with alarmingly loose lugnuts gets one to an entirely different scene. three hours from the airport we were at a historic dutch fort town waking up to a muslim call to prayer from the nearby mosque, three hours later we are surfing at mirissa beach that goes down as my favorite beach to date outside of a slice of heaven on the galapagos, three hours later we were in a bumpin range rover on safari with laurel yelling at the driver to 'floor it...floor it....its on!!' as we watched a furball of fury leopard take down a grey haired monkey from a tree in mere seconds, three hours later we were up in the hills on a tea plantation sipping ceylon tea where mr lipton probably made his fortune, three hours later we were brutally laboring along with hundreds of buddhist pilgrims up 5800 steps (laurel cried here a third time) to the top of adam's peak to catch a sunrise i wont soon forget. it has only been 3 years since this country was embroiled in a 30 year civil war. and in the last 3 years this country has seen some monsterous growth particularly in the tourism industry. my next google search will be 'top 10 sri lankan companies' and i will try to get involved. this place is booming and with peace only recently realized there seems to be plenty of growth in its near future.

rob in his chariot

kandy botanic gardens

walking galle fort wall

galle at sunset

sri lankan safari

can you find the lizard?

moments before death

nice plumage

taking the train thru hill country

we miss you rob!

tokyo tuna

anime and emil

emil says:

i have never seen so many creatures of the sea in my life. Largest fish market in the world 700k tons of marine life worth $5.5bn annually. the scene at 5 am is genuine chaos. this is the wall street of the marine world. scores of bluefin tuna up to 200 pounds go for nearly $35K a head (there are 11,000 pieces of sushi in a fish that big) and the auction process is just hysterical to the average outsider. the tuna auction is the highlight but really the amount of stuff that these folks pull out of the sea (and consume) that we couldn't even recognize is also amazing. most of it looks like a good dr seuss book on a powerful hit of acid. there are monstrous sea urchins, buckets of sea cucumbers, dozens of eel types, numerous types of fish caviar, hundreds of sardine types, hundreds of fish i have never seen before, tuna cheeks and eyeballs are sold separately, blowfish and pufferfish and seriously absurd looking fish, and yup they sell whale meat. the noise is intense here and the speed even more so. band saws cutting blocks and blocks of tuna into 5 pound portions to be sent all the way to michelin starred sushi chefs down to pet food companies all over the world (oh and even the tails and heads of tuna are sold to fertilizer companies). there are fisherman, sotheby's type auctioneers, wholesalers, distributors, intermediate wholesalers, and a myriad of in betweeners that are between some other guys that know a guy. even the styrafoam guys are making a killing here. this is a big big business. its an amazing place to come check out. and there's something awesome about eating sushi at 6am right off the dock post the tuna auctions. a must visit for anyone that wants to get a glimpse of the underbelly of the fish industry.

the big boys- about 200 pounds

cutting up the auctioned tuna in the wholesaler area

band saw cutting frozen tuna

the auction block

examining the goods

tuna coffins...headed to a sushi bar near you

Monday, March 12, 2012

choo-choo japan

floating shrine at miyajima (better at high tide)

johnny mosley

japanese alps near nagano

shogun heading to onsen (hot springs)

matsumoto castle

laurel says:

it is hard to describe how efficient and just plain cool the train system in japan is. the network of bullet trains or "shinkansen," that travel at speeds upwards of 300 kilometers per hour, arrive to the second. the trains themselves look like something out of the space age, with their smooth, white, snakelike exteriors. inside the carriages are spotless and the white gloved conductors bow every time they enter the room. we were lucky to have been tipped off to the japan rail pass (similar to a eurorail pass) and we used our 2 week unlimited travel pass to the fullest, visiting 12 places in 14 days. it is safe to say that we are both exhausted from the rigorous pace, but glad that we were able to cram so many of japan's a-list sights into one trip. one of the more powerful stops on our trip was our time spent in hiroshima. the atomic bomb museum, victim's hall and peace park leave you praying that this type of devastating weaponry is never again used. on a completely different note, the buddhist graveyard at koya-san was one of the most zen and spiritual places we have ever visited. strolling thru the 1200 year old gravesites and paying respects to kobo daishi, the founder of esoteric buddhism, was one of our favorite experiences. our last stop in the resort town of hakone, near mt fuji was also highly memorable. we finally bit the bullet and stayed in a traditional japanese ryokan...aka sleeping on mats on the floor. it turned out to be a wonderful experience, largely due to our delightful hostess, a four foot tall japanese grandma that bowed so low she was practically at emil's knee caps. but these are just a few of the many wonderful places we were fortunate enough to visit. japan has a wealth of culture, unique history and stunning scenery and its retention of ancient customs combined with modern technology make for a dynamite vacation. i would highly recommend traveling japan and am already plotting our return.

streets of osaka

aggressive sushi

loving kobe

emil is bullish on kobe

emil says:

besides antarctica, japan has proven to be my favorite destination on the trip thus far. using the bullet train (shinkansen) throughout the country allowed us to see a huge amount in a relatively short 3 weeks. nagano: site of the '98 winter olympics. skiing does not have the same sort of she-she foo-foo panache like it does in the states. lift tickets are $40 and the ski resorts are hardly resort-like. this is bad news for the non-skiier in our troupe but for me it was glorious. add the fact that the japanese do not like powder but thoroughly enjoy their groomed corduroy runs. one liftie said to me "you ski good, but why you ski over there" (pointing to the pristine figure 8s i left behind out of bounds). kobe: yes the beef is that good. hiroshima: its an astonishing museum and city to visit. few buildings remained standing in the city post the bomb. within the museum are exhibits of concrete steps of a former bank where a person's shadow remains post the nuclear blast. i think most amazingly though is the message the peace memorial museum conveys. rather than focusing on the past, the museum preaches global peace and the need to end nuclear proliferation. whether one thinks our use of the bomb(s) brought ww2 to an early close and thus avoided further casualties or whether one thinks it was a proper and proportionate response to pearl harbor or not is up for debate. personally, i was overwhelmed with sadness while in hiroshima. koyasan: if you want a zen-like experience head to oku-no-in in koyasan, this is the coolest single afternoon we spent in japan. a buddhist cemetery/temple complex where thousands of who's who and it's it monks and feudal lords rest. mt fuji: though obscured by clouds one day and by snow the next it was fabulously relaxing to spend a few days in the hot springs "onsen" and shrines of hakone hoping to spot the elusive mt fuji, but we settled for some bright sunny postcards instead. japan has been tremendous and even better than our lofty expectations. the food, the people, the mix of modern and ancient, the skiing, the bullet trains, the ww2 history, the shrines, gardens, and buddhas oh my. will be hard to beat this place.