dispatches from here

It comes in bunches, I suppose. Its somewhat rare to have even a free weekend during internship, and when they arrive they’re called “golden weekends”. But then comes that one elusive month of vacation, randomly assigned, eagerly awaited, and given in one straight chunk. With no idea when my next trip would be after this one, I made sure to maximize it.

I had no real plans in place except for my flights there and back. I took my packed bag with me to work on the day of departure. It had been an unusually busy week at work but at 7pm I was done and on my way out. I changed into street clothes, dumped my scrubs locker room hamper, left the hospital and headed straight to the airport.

The final itinerary? SFO to Las Vegas (for the weekend), then straight to Bali, then Java, Borneo, Singapore, and back to Vegas for another weekend before heading home to SF the night before I had to go back to work.  Pictures and stories to come, as I get to them. Thirty two days of non-stop travel with a camera in hand has left with me way too many pictures to sort through.

Arrived in Bali after a day and half of planes and airports and hopped on a boat for the 45 minute trip to Nusa Lembongan, a small island off the southeast coast. Its relatively under-developed and doesn't have a dock. So we had to jump off the boat and wade ashore, with my camera bag held high over my head hoping for a dry trip. From there I walked a hundred meters up the beach to a little spot called Pondok Baruna and was treated to a room just off the water.

A little bit of afternoon rain, which broke just in time for an excellent sunset. I waded into warm waist deep water for this shot, which was well worth it.

I spent a lot of time scuba diving (lots of underwater photos to come), and with water this warm and clear, visibility was consistently amazing (>30 meters)

Seaweed farming is one of the main sources of income in Lembongan. The seaweed is very sensitive and requires relatively calm waters and consistent temperature and salinity, which are provided by protective reefs.

The seaweed is relatively plentiful, and sells for about 20 cents per pound once dried.

Its easy to walk around the shallows and tide pools, but the smell can be a bit overpowering.

Rising early in the morning to harvest seaweed to avoid the harsh afternoon sun.

Tiny boats meander slowly along the coastline.

Sunrise from Lembongan watching rain drench the Bali mainland ahead.

Sunrise over Dream Beach, Lembongan

A bit of rest on Dream Beach after a long day of scuba diving

The stark contrast between simple dirt streets and elaborate temples all throughout Lembongan

Sunset Beach, Nusa Lembongan, Bali

Sunset Beach, Nusa Lembongan, Bali

View Larger Map

After a long, dusty 10 weeks in the Middle East, i took a break from traveling to graduate from med school. And with that out of the way, back on the road for a final hurrah, a week-long roadtrip around Jamaica with lots of beach stops and sunsets. We’ll save the stories for later, now, onward to photos.

As many of you readers know, I spent the 10 weeks starting Feb 12 in the Middle East, through Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The core of that time was spent in Syria, living in an Iraqi refugee camp and putting together a documentary film (more on that later).

To keep things interesting and to log my travels, each day I took a photo telling the story of that day somehow. Most of them were done with a tripod and wireless remote, with an occasional bystander snapping the photo. I tried to switch things up, and the fact that I didn’t spend much time in the same place helped out.

Check out the complete slideshow below, 10 weeks of daily photos while bopping around the Middle East.

Hit the play button to get started.

Its been a total whirlwind and I’m pretty pooped, so you’ll all have to wait for pictures until the next post. A few days ago I was in Luxor (Egypt) and had a busy travel day: taxi to the airport, flight to Sharm el Sheikh, bus to Dahab, another bus to Nuweiba, bought ferry tickets, another bus to the ferry, a 4 hour ferry ride from Egypt to Aqaba, Jordan, and another bus to the hotel.  No joke.  I managed to make it all happen, in a single day, in the middle east, where nobody knew when anything arrives or leaves.

Aqaba is the southernmost port in Jordan and is uninspiring, but from the beach you can look west and see Israel (about 6 km away!), and then beyond that you can see Egypt (maybe 15km away?).  Then you look east and see Saudi Arabia.  Pretty cool.

Spent the next day off roading in the Jordanian desert (Wadi Rum) with a Bedoiun guide, and now resting in Amman.  Will be heading to London wednesday, and then back to SF.  home sweet home.

I’m pretty behind on posting actual media, so I apologize.  I have 110 gigabytes of photos and 120 gigabytes of video. for real. I’ll bore you with all soon enough.

Check out this NY Times story about an ambush on a group of Lebanese soldiers that happened this morning.  Four of them were killed when their truck was attacked with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns by drug traffickers.  The craziest thing about it is this happened in Rayak, in the northern part of the Bekaa Valley.  I was there, 6 days ago in Zahle and Ksara hanging out in the mountains and wine tasting.  These beautiful, calm, serene towns are only 6 miles away from Rayak!  Six days and six miles is far too close for comfort.

The most bizarre thing about Lebanon is how totally at peace with the situation all of the locals seem.  So comfortable and able to go on living their lives.  I guess you get used to instability after 15 years of civil war.  Reading that bit of news makes me even more excited to be in Egypt.

So after an awesome week bouncing around Lebanon, Adam and I were sitting in a cafe in Beirut and decided to head to Egypt! A little bit of a whim and no real plans.  Ten minutes ago, we booked a one-way flight to Cairo that leaves in 4 hours!  Talk about last minute travel.

Its been a pretty amazing 2 months so far. Imagine waking up in the morning and thinking to yourself, “Hmm…I wonder what country I want to be in tonight?” Now THAT is a liberating feeling!

The satellite view of the Eastern Syrian Desert. There's basically lots and lots of sand and rocks, and the green strip bisecting it is the Euphrates river. Seen from above, you can really appreciate how important it has been throughout antiquity and how it was able to sustain civilization for thousands of years.

On our way to the eastern Syrian town of Hassake, we stopped over in a small town on the Euphrates River called Dier as-Zur for the night.  This has got to be one of the dustiest places I have ever been, with a fresh daily 3mm coat of dust on everything in sight once the sun sets and the winds pick up. It actually hurts to breathe in the evenings and visibility is minimal.

During the day we wandered down to the banks of the Euphrates River and had a chance to see one of the two rivers that defined Mesopotamia and gave birth to the ‘fertile crescent’ and the first civilizations of the ancient Near East.

I came across a group of local kids swimming in the river and couldn’t pass up an opportunity for a baptism in the Euphrates.  Relatively clean water, cool and crisp, wide and slow moving.  A swim in the Euphrates is definitely an unforgettable experience.

The Euphrates at Dier Az Zur. This used to be an old Assyrian village many generations ago (the name means 'Small Church'), but there aren't any left there now. In the 1990's it turned in a boom town when oil was found nearby. Local kids were jumping off the bridge into the river, a temptation I was able to avoid. Those splashed in the river are me...swimming against the slow current.

Swimming with the local kids in the Euphrates!

 
View Larger Map

Currently taking a short break to Aleppo (Halab), but traveling light and left the laptop in Damascus, so no pictures for you yet.  After a day of rest and a day of hitting the crowded souq, today was ruins exploration day in the countryside around Aleppo.  Started out early and made it to Qala’at Samaan (a basilica to St. Simeon on a huge rocky outcropping) , Dier Samaan (tiny village with no roads/cars),  Ain Dara (10th century BCE Temple to Ishtar with carved lions and sphinxes in the fertile Kurdish countryside), and finally to Afreen (a Kurdish town about 20 kilometers from the Turkish border.

Covered quite a lot of ground, thanks to a little bit of Arabic and a fair amount of hitch-hiking in:

• A giant yellow dump truck with two Mohammeds and an Ahmed
• A motorcycle with a red and white khuffiyeh flapping in my face
• The back of a manure truck (mostly, but not completely, empty)
• A bread delivery truck (smelled much better than the manure truck)
• A pickup with Mustafa
• And finally, a few mini-buses

Pictures and etc to follow (should be back in Damascus by the end of the week).  Tomorrow heading to the ancient city of Ebla, which was sacked and destroyed by Sargon of Akkad in 2250 BCE, and the dead/abandoned Byzantine cities of Serjilla, Ruweiha, Jerada, and Al-Bara.  The goal is sunrise is Serjilla, which supposedly sits in a deep basin and fills with mist in the mornings.