Passing though Changu Narayan

The Kathmandu valley is filled with medieval hamlets, rolling hills, brick factories, and goats.  We had a driver take us up the hillside into Changu Narayan.  

Bryan Adams is huge in Nepal

A strange undercurrent has taken a turn for the surreal during our adventure through Nepal. On our first day in Nepal, we befriended a 16 year old named Monaj and when we got to talking about music, he was only interested in talking about one man - Bryan Adams.  He even sang the first few lines to summer of 69.  We thought it was odd that a teenager was so fond of the aging rock icon.  The Bryan Adams madness only ballooned from there.

After you become aware of something, it seems to occur everywhere.  After Monaj spoke of his love for the crooner popular for such songs as "I wanna be (your underwear)" and 18 going on 55, we could not escape the stylings of the Nepalese heartthrob.  I could not help but picture him bringing down the house in Kathmandu to a crowd of weeping Nepalese with a heartfelt rendition of "(Everything I do) I do it for you."

And it happened, he performed in Kathmandu a few months ago.

The pods of our life

As usual on a trip across the globe, there were characters during our hops from one destination to the next.  On our flight to Amsterdam, we sat next to a Lithuanian chess master on scholarship at UTD.  Apparently UTD is one of the few schools to hand out scholarships to chess players. He was returning home to Lithuania for the summer months.  Kristin swears his name was Cod, but I would almost gamble a fortune that it was Todd.  It is a point of debate between us.  Among his more difficult adaptations to American life was the appropriate way to navigate through a Subway sandwich shop.  He was amazed at the level of sandwich freedom - all of those toppings, for free.

The mask-maker at work in Changu Narayan

Here, in the Kathmandu valley village of Changu Narayan, the mask-maker cannot possibly make enough masks.  He toils away in a ghost like trance carving and painting, carving and painting.

The longest of journeys

Thursday, May 12  - St. Croix to Miami followed by Miami to Dallas
Friday, May 13 - Dallas to Amsterdam
Saturday, May 14 - Amsterdam to New Delhi
Sunday, May 15 - New Delhi to Kathmandu

We are in Nepal, where roads come to an end.    

St. Croix is for lovers - Part 4

Most of our guests left the Virgin Islands, but Kristin, myself, and Nathan Bellah remained.  We explored the far west of the island.  Fredericksted, St. Croix's westernmost city, was ghost town empty, but extremely interesting nonetheless. We ate the best deli sandwiches in the world (seriously) at Turtle's Deli and wandered the empty streets.

St. Croix is for lovers - Part 3

The wedding day came. Girls did yoga on the beach with Spencer.  The guys went to go watch pigs drink beer and eat lobster at Cane Bay on the north side of St. Croix.  A day trip to gorgeous Buck Island here, swimming in the neon plankton of Salt Bay there, we had an excellent time.

St. Croix is for lovers - Part 2

After a few days in St. Croix, busloads of friends and family began to arrive for our wedding.  We had a great time.  Between literally commandeering the bar care of Eric Rems and Ali Zandi and taking to the calm surf like an army of Hasselhoffs, it shaped up to be a spectacular weekend.

St. Croix is for lovers - Part 1

The beach in front of our home for the last week - The Palms at Pelican Cove

We came, we saw, we got married.  St. Croix will always be a special place for the new Delaney family.  After spending the last week with over seventy of our closest friends and family in the Virgin Islands, Kristin and I depart for another adventure.  I will be posting many pictures and detailing our exploratory whims with short vignettes.  Please stay tuned and check back frequently at goboogo.com.  We arrive in Kathmandu on May 15. First things first, I will be sharing a few posts worth of pictures from St. Croix, wedding excluded. Those wedding photos will come much later.

The 10 creepiest abandoned cities

I wrote this post over at gadling, and it has been wildly popular with almost 1,000,000 hits.  Check it out for sure.

The world's ten creepiest abandoned cities

Double Lightning, what does it mean?

Took these shots just moments ago as a storm rolled through.  Pretty Awesome.

Golden Gate Bridge High Dynamic Range

I just got back from San Francisco.  You can read all about my trip here.  I saw spaceships, met Buzz Aldrin, and took some awesome pictures.  Here is one of hundreds I took of the Golden Gate Bridge.