Ian Davis is a Punk

Recently, it has come to my attention that I've been libeled. My good name, along with that of my People, has been unceremoniously besmirched by one Ian Davis, whose book, My Boys Can Swim!: The Official Guy's Guide to Pregnancy, has this little tidbit on the back cover:


Ian Davis, I'm calling you out.

You think you're so great with your puny, three-letter, weasel-name? It isn't even short for anything. Your name is predominantly vowels! Do you know what other words in the English language have vowels? ALL OF THEM! At least the Thads of the world have a delightful digraph to enjoy in their names.

As to your baseless, "dork who should be beaten up," comments, well, I hate to rehash my old war photos, but you forced my hand:
















Two questions for you Ian:

1. Do dorks ride wallabies??

2. Are you brave enough to try to beat up a guy who gets massages from alligators??

I didn't think so.

Besides, anybody named Ian would still be sitting at the table as punishment for not eating his mommy's "yucky" lima beans. So, until you can come out to play, we Thads aren't too worried yet.

Because, as we all know, the name Ian is Old English for, "Whiny man-boy who lives with his parents."


P.S. Apparently, I only have one shirt in China...who knew??

Radio Free Zhongguo

So I was monkeying with the MP3 player that I bought here (after my player from home was stolen) and I figured out how to record local radio stations. If you want to hear Mandarin that was played just five minutes ago here in Chengxian, Gansu, today is your lucky day!

I happened to catch the radio station during a series of advertisements. Children and that deep booming voice (here selling baijiu, a potent wine) are often used used in both radio and TV spots all over China.

Enjoy!


REC002.WAV

What I Did on My Vacation: Part II

Okay, here are the last of the vacation photos. After Cambodia we made our way south of the equator to Bali, Indonesia. Bali is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world because of beautiful beaches, great weather and abundant scenery. It was great place to relax.

Our vacation finished up in Guangzhou, a large city in southern China, where we spent the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year.)

They are a little backwards, but here are some photos:

1. Several ingredients go into making a good Spring Festival. One of the most important parts are dancing dragons and lions. They were hired to visit the local businesses where we happened to be having lunch. The lion made its way into the restaurant and danced in front of the boss and then moved on to the next business. It is strange to see culture mix with commerce like this, but interesting nonetheless.

2. In China, Guangzhou is famous for having beautiful flowers. One of the main downtown streets was blocked off for three days for people to sell Spring Festival goods. I am standing in front of a flower vendor. You'll notice that I'm wearing my warm winter clothes again as it was back to the cold again.

3. Everyone loves to go shopping during the holiday. Kids are flush with cash that they receive in "red envelopes" from their family members. They are anxious to spend it and families are all together after spending an entire year apart in many cases. This was taken in the main shopping district in Guangzhou. People were shoulder to shoulder. It was really difficult to get through the huge mass of humanity.

4. A frog says what??

5. These girls were selling devil horns and mouse ears (It is the year of the rat!) to people. When I walked by they yelled hello to me, so I took their picture, which gave them the giggles. A camera is a disarming thing in China. In most cases, nothing breeds goodwill like taking someone's picture and then showing them.

6. This is the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou. Sun was influential in helping overthrowing dynastic rule in China and was the first president of China. The Memorial Hall is actually a huge theater, you can see the monument to him on the hill in the background.

7. Here is a Buddhist shrine at the Ulu Danu temple. The sky had just opened up on us in a huge torrent of rain for about half an hour and this was taken right after, it turned out to be a pretty colorful shot. The highlight of the temple is a famous temple located on the lake. It is on the back of the 50,000 Rupiah bill.

8, 9 and 11. I sweet talked a driver into giving us a cheap ride inland for a ways up Mount Agung to the awesome Git git Waterfall deep in the rain forest. I have never been surrounded by vegetation that was so green before. Idaho is known for its sagebrush desert and pine trees int the north. This forest was something completely different. It was about to rain so the whole mountain was enveloped in a mist that made for an interesting picture There were some pretty huge spiders there too. Fun stuff.

10. Look at that bat. This a fruit bat from Turtle Island, which was like an exotic petting zoo featuring several kinds of sea turtles, bats, snakes, falcons and various birds. The handlers would let you get up close and personal with the critters. The bat's skin was much softer than I thought it would be. One of the handlers plopped a python around Shell's neck and then wrapped it around her before she could do much. She was a pretty good sport about it, considering the look on her face.

12. Hindu temple in Ubud, Bali. Indonesia is an Islamic country and Hinduism is a minority religion there, but Bali is 93% Balinese Hindu, which is a special form of Hinduism practiced in Indonesia. In the photo you can see the woman either offering or blessing sesajen, which are daily offerings of rice and flowers to the gods made in small bamboo trays. They are omnipresent on the island and an extremely important part of the culture.

13. This is at the marketplace in Ubud, which is famous for arts and crafts. It wasn't unusual to see women with baskets on their heads like this.

14 and 15. Also in Ubud was Monkey Forest Park which, given Michelle's new-found terror of the little guys, was not her favorite stop. The park is a temple and reserve for macaques and it is filled with them. For a little money you can buy some food and give it to the monkeys, although they do get a bit grabby. I gave some bananas to Shell, but after being cornered and pestered by the monkeys, she gave them to me. I decided to make them earn it so I held out the banana above the monkey's head to make him jump for it. You see them jumping around in the trees on videos, right? I figured he could jump high enough to get it. He chose not to jump. Instead he climbed my body like a tree, swung out onto my arm, grabbed the banana and bounded away. After that I tried all sorts of different ways to trick the monkeys. In this picture I held it above my head and he climbed up my back to get the banana. The other picture is of my friend, John by the sign entering the park. It looks like he is about to be the victim of a sneak attack!

16. This is a rice paddy in Bali. It is about 50 yards from the Indian Ocean.

Hope you enjoyed the pics!