Author: Megan
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Around the World in Tiny Drawings
From reading my blog some of you may have discerned that I’m a visual person. It’s true that when traveling I probably can’t tell East form West but I do remember how many barber shops we passed or that we need to turn at the giant chicken statue. I’m also very detail-oriented and keep track…
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Phase I Videos Online
Now that everyone has had time to look at my Phase II videos I’ve added Phase I. The majority of these videos are from Myanmar, although I do have a fondness for the one video I took in Thailand. Possibly my favorite video from both of my trips is this mob scene when I was…
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Travel Links
Travelers I met along the way I’m sure there were more over the 14 months, but these were the ones I had written down. Victoria from Northern Ireland whom I traveled with almost a month in Mongolia. She’s just finishing her trip about now. David, who I connected with online before meeting in Ulaan Bataar,…
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Phase II Videos Online
A while back a reader asked if there was some way to view all of my videos. At the time there wasn’t—I had been uploading videos to my own server in appropriate posts. Because of the requests and the realization that I have a lot of videos from my trip that never made it into…
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$21,625.45
Those of you who have been waiting, the new finances page is up. Until a few hours ago I thought my total was around $18,000 but after clarifying some discrepancies on my spread sheet the total has come to $21,625.45. Just to better solidify my OCD with all of you I’ve added more details, including…
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Final(ly) Expenses
When I first returned home it was obvious that most of my readers were anxious for that big number—my total expenses over 14 months. It’s been a struggle to motivate myself to step up to the demands and tally my expenses but I’m finally almost done. It wasn’t an especially difficult or time consuming task—most…
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An Amazing Race?
In college everyone would go on and on about how I should be on MTV’s The Real World. Of course, this is back when the show was cast with average-looking but interesting people. I don’t fit the mold of a Real World-er anymore, but ever since The Amazing Race came out I consistently hear about…
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Hometown Halloween
Longtime readers will remember how much I love Halloween. Last year I dressed up as a mountain climber and spent Halloween at the Mount Everest Base Camp. Just the other day Sui (the Californian I traveled with on and off in Tibet, Nepal & India) and I were reminiscing about our Halloween adventure. Now we’re…
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A Hairy Predicament
I have a problem, a souvenir from Zanzibar that’s lasted longer than I’d anticipated. Two months after the end of my trip I still have zebra-striped arm hair. One of my favorite traditions in Swahili culture is henna. On my bus from Arusha to Dar Es Salaam I saw women with henna-covered feet and hands…
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Kyrgyz Confession
I feel horrible that I’ve been keeping such a huge secret from all of you loyal readers for so long. There’s a reason why I didn’t write much about Kyrgyzstan a year ago—I was in a pretty bad car accident somewhere between the Chinese border and the tiny town of Sary Tash. A year later…
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The Hits Keep Coming for The Congo
As if the increasing violence in The Congo I wrote about earlier this week wasn’t bad enough, now they have a deadly outbreak of The Ebola Virus on their hands. Reuters reports that the outbreak is in Kasai Occidental province, in the South of the country. Thankfully it’s not in the Eastern provinces where the…
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Me-go Featured in Local Paper
I was recently interviewed for a piece on “travel bloggers” for a local paper, The Daily Herald, and it came out in today’s paper. You can read it online here if you’re interested but my contribution was very small. Despite the way the online version is organized, my cartwheel photo from Giza, Egypt ran across…
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Gorillas Fighting Gorillas
Since I’ve been home I’ve kept an eye out for any local coverage of East Africa. American newspapers spend little time covering anything happening outside the United States and it’s rare that I find anything that relates to my recent trip. Unfortunately, this morning I found a tiny news item about the D.R.C. buried in…
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The Gallery is Open
Everyone seems to have a different idea of what they want to see updated first on this site. I think it’s telling that all the people who wrote me emails or left comments asked for sketchbooks or souvenirs but the winner of my anonymous poll was finances. I’m not surprised, “how much did you spend?”…
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Safely Home
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been home for a few days now. Thanks for giving me time before demanding more updates! Since I’ve been home I’ve spent my time eating food that I like and staring in dismay at the piles of souvenirs I’ve sent home. I shipped at least eight packages…
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London After Seven Years
Now that I’m in London I’m a little overwhelmed. Not by the city, I’ve been here before and know my way around. It’s the little things like price tags and the fact that the sidewalks have a gentle slope where they meet roads so one doesn’t need to climb up and down high curbs when…
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Criticizing Carrots
I understand that some of you can’t imagine why I’m tired and have decided it’s about time to head home. What happened the other day is a classic example. I got on the fast ferry from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar and showed my ticket to no less than three people at various gates as…
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Vacation
My time on safari in Lake Manyara, The Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater was filled with many animals ( no rhinos but plenty of cheetahs and leopards) and a lot of lies from my tour operator. My first day in The Serengeti was marred by a terrible accident between two safari 4x4s. Our car was the…
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One Day, Three Countrues, Two Borders
Although it sounds silly, driving through Kenya to Tanzania was (supposed to be) faster and more comfortable than overlanding from Uganda through Western Tanzania. I arranged to have the bus pick me up in Jinja, a few hours East of Kampala. I waited in the sun beside a dusty roundabout for an hour before it…
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The Nile: Up Close and Personal
I went white water rafting at the source of the Nile in Jinja, Uganda. I thought I was going to die. Have I mentioned my unnatural fear of water before? More to come when I find a keyboard with letters printed on the keys. Off to Tanzania on the bus tomorrow. ? Note: This entry…