SLU Travel Enrichment Grant: Thailand's National Parks

First off, I apologize for my lack of blogging during the past few months. I had said that I wanted to get back into blogging, and I plan on doing that, but life is crazy and my blogging has gotten lost in translation. Anyways, here is the write-up that I did for my Travel Enrichment Grant that was sponsored by St. Lawrence University, allowing me to visit several national parks in Thailand. Please visit the link below to learn more about my thoughts on the management of Thailand's parks.

http://www.stlawu.edu/ciis/content/894

Grand Point North Music Festival

This past weekend (September 14/15) I traveled to Burlington for a two day music festival headlined by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Grace Potter attended St. Lawrence (although she didn't graduate) and she is an amazing artist. We got to see two full days of great music, ranging from alternative rock to funk to folk among many other genres. Chris and I stayed with some SLU alums and got to enjoy the cute little city of Burlington. Beautiful weather and amazing music!

Charles Bradley and His Extrordinares

Sunset over Lake Champlain

outdoor venue

I'm Back!

I've decided to return to my blog. I had originally thought that it would be nice to keep the blog going throughout my summer at home to keep friends and family updated with fun things I got to do, however, I got a little busy and never got around to it. So here's a second attempt at getting back into the blogging world in the United States. I will try and keep you updated with photos and thoughts about what I've been up to up at St. Lawrence. Thanks for following!!

Home Sweet Home

After a long few days of traveling, I finally made it back to the States. My parents, joined by Harry and Painter, picked me up at the Syracuse airport and we took the "scenic route" back home through the Adirondacks. It feels great to be back! I couldn't have asked for more perfect weather on my first day home. Harry and I spent the day on Clay Island, taking a paddle in kayaks around Huddle Bay. Then in the evening we met up with our parents, Ted, Jane, and Cecil for a dinner cruise on the St. Louis, with Harry, now 21, at the helm. Went to bed early in attempting to catch up on some much needed sleep.

I am hoping to continue this blog for a while. Although I won't be having such diverse adventures, I plan to post some photos and stories about adventures I go on in and around the Adirondacks during the summer. I'm really happy that everyone enjoyed reading this blog as much as I liked writing it. It was great to keep friends and family updated on my daily life and I hope to continue it for a while.

view of Tongue Mountain from the St. Louis

Pit Stop in Nepal

Well I'm a little behind on my blog for a few reasons. First of all, the site I use was blocked in China. Also, I've been quite busy with packing and traveling that the past week or so has been a bit nuts. But my last week in Asia was filled with lots of fun and adventures, and I will be sure to update with photos and stories as soon as I can. I am currently in Kathmandu, Nepal, where I am staying overnight in a guesthouse before heading back home tomorrow afternoon. I arrived here this afternoon after flying from Kunming-Chiang Mai-Bangkok-New Delhi-Kathmandu. It was a lot of traveling and I'm pretty exhausted but it's great to be back in Nepal, even if it's for about 24 hours. I will be catching the return trip of my round trip flight back to Syracuse tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. I will fly Kathmandu-Mumbai-Newark-Syracuse. Looking forward to getting some good rest when I'm back home....and seeing all my loved ones will be pretty amazing too.

leaving the Kathmandu airport

More of China

China was pretty great. When I had visited Beijing and Shanghai in January 2012, I left feeling that I didn't see any of rural China, and I was bummed about that. Luckily, on my last trip to China I got to see a great deal of the countryside and natural environment. Jack, Andrew and I were in Kunming for about a week. When we first got there we visited the Stone Forest, about 70 km outside of Kunming. The Stone Forest is made up of thousands of limestone formations that you and walk around and through and climb on top of. We had a great time exploring the area for the day. Although it was packed with Chinese tourists, we were able to explore some places that the tourist groups couldn't find.

On Thursday night we took a night train from Kunming to Lijang. Surprisingly, I slept like a baby despite the loud music and announcements in Chinese that played over a speaker in our room. We didn't realize until the next day that you could turn off the speaker. After arriving in Lijang, we bussed for abou 2.5 hours to Quio Toe, and we were dropped off right at the trail head. We spent the first day hiking and seeing amazing views of the Gorge. The Jinsha River, a contributor to the Upper Yangtze, divides huge mountains over 17,000 feet high. Some of the higher peaks that we could see were covered in snow. The views along the entire trail were incredible, and I found myself stopping often to look at the views (and catch my breath). We spent the night on the trail at the Halfway Guesthouse, which overlooks a beautiful view of the opposing cliffs and mountains, and is at 7,694 feet. We were overjoyed to be served a delicious dinner of grilled veggie sandwiches and hot soup. It was a bit chilly once we were settled in, but we were very welcoming to the cold after coming from hot Thailand. After dinner we sat on "Inspiration Terrace,"the deck overlooking the amazing view, and sat underneath blankets with hot chocolate and a strange version of apple pie. 

Made in China

We have made it to China! P. Jew brought us to the airport in Chiang Mai where we all had to say goodbye to him for the last time. We were all very sad to be saying goodbye to a good friend. We arrived in Kunming a little before midnight and were greeted by our driver who, although only a few minutes late, was out of breath from running to meet us and apologized constantly for being late. He was so nice and friendly and made our ride to our guesthouse very pleasant. At a toll booth Andrew, sitting in the backseat, rolled down his window to say "ne-hao!" (hello) and completely startled the young Chinese woman working there. We checked into our guesthouse, the Lost Garden, with some difficultly since we don't know any Chinese and the elderly man working the nightshift spoke zero English. Our room is a small but cozy room with three beds. You can tell that we have already made ourselves at home in our new room. We were overjoyed to wake up to a cool morning and although there are blue skies it is only 82 degrees Fahrenheit.