Stuff

Our blog is mostly about our experiences, encounters and interactions as we've taken off to travel and do a-typically American things. We don't talk about politics, religion, and many other parts of our lives. However, part of our experience in this last 1.5 years has been dealing with all our stuff. We have things in Iowa, things in Michigan, things in the back of a truck; we still have unused wedding gifts new in the box (going on five years old at this stage).
Read about more stuff...
I think the idea of all our stuff came into play vividly when we moved out of New York and filled most of a small moving truck and I thought, "We live in less than 300 sq. feet, how do we have so much crap?" right as a friend of ours, Anthony, came up and said, "Josh, how did you get so much crap in such a small place." I like to think that we weren't very materialistic, didn't buy more than what we needed (by much) but as I looked into that truck I knew I was wrong and there was bound to be crap in there I didn't need... or even really want.

Anyway, I've been thinking about our stuff as of late, due to the continually unfolding nature of our lives, all our unused/hardly used stuff when I ran across this flash movie around the same time and decided to share. The movie itself isn't amazing with stunning animation but is just a fairly straightforward story about our stuff. It takes about 20 minutes to run the whole thing, though you can skip around, and is worth a look if you have a few minutes.

This is the part where I'm supposed to add some witty and insightful commentary... but y'all can think for yourselves and what you think about stuff and this movie. Or watch it here in its original context.

Funny Photo Friday: Sleepy Time

We found that people on our Asia trip had a great ability to sleep in public places. Here are some of the better sleeping photos we got...



Happy Easter!

You are what you... wear?

I briefly went shopping over Christmas break. Along with getting slightly overwhelmed by the selection process, the amount of choice, and parting with money only recently re-earned, I found myself looking at the labels of almost every garment I tried on. In the past, I often looked to see where my clothes were made after I had purchased them or worn them half a dozen times. This time, I thought of the Bangladeshis and Cambodians and Chinese and Nepalese that made the clothes I tried on. I don't think my tag-checking directly affected my purchases, though. I had little time and money to waste on my already faintly tedious decision-making process. But I am wondering if I should change that...

Read the rest...
I think we used to hear the slogan "Buy made in America" a lot more than we do these days. Maybe that's because it's increasingly more difficult to do so. I think in general Americans (and British from what I can tell) agree that it's good to buy products made in their own countries. They might also agree that the quality of the goods is probably higher. But I remember listening to a man rant about Chinese-made shoes a few years ago and feeling like his tirade bordered on racial discrimination. Josh and I were both present and both left feeling a bit uncomfortable. He was more upset about quality than anything else, but maybe there's more to it. Josh also had people come to him when he worked at EMS asking what they had that wasn't made in China. Apparently, this is more wide-spread than I thought. With all the Chinese product recalls in the USA lately, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

There seems to be a new-ish buy local food craze, but what about clothing? Can anyone afford to fill their wardrobe with only American-made clothes? Should we want to? What about the energy it takes to ship all that material from country to country and then to ship those shirts and socks and blue jeans to the other side of the world? What about giving developing countries a much-needed source of income? Or are we just encouraging sweatshops in far-off lands?

On our trip, we encountered huge clothing centers in Phnom Penh, Dhaka, and Kathmandu. They would sell clothes with familiar labels like Gap, H&M, Levis... We had neither time nor money to shop in Cambodia or Bangladesh, but I did pick up two light-weight cotton replacement shirts in Nepal. I think they have Aeropostale labels in them, but obviously they never made it to the actual shops.

Last night, Josh and I listened to a podcast of This American Life that included a segment about the Cambodian garment industry. During the Clinton era, Cambodia was given garment trade privileges in exchange for decent working conditions. The result was a boom in the Cambodian garment industry (explaining the huge clothing centers we encountered), along with 8 hour work days, fresh water, nursing mother breaks, etc. However, with the end of the prioritized agreement came increased pressure to succumb to typical developing nation working conditions in an effort to compete for business. I find myself caring more about the Cambodian plight because I've been there, but I suppose there are dozens of other countries struggling with similar issues. I did find it interesting that Cambodia is losing business to Vietnam and Thailand where the clothing can be made cheaper due to worse working conditions, despite their slightly better-off economies. Also interesting: the Cambodian garment industry representatives are perhaps more familiar with the current presidential candidates than I am simply because the lives of thousands of workers depend on trade agreements I've never heard of. Also, if the current limits on Chinese garment imports expire as they are set to do in the next few years, the Cambodian industry will suffer, losing huge percentages of the trade.

What am I trying to say? I guess I am just asking questions. How can I, as a rich American, seek out cheap clothing knowing what conditions the person who sewed it might be working under? How can I, as the sole earner for a husband who pays very high international tuition, not seek out cheap clothing? And do my clothing choices really make a difference? Should I avoid a "made in China" label? Can I shun an entire country's products over another's? How do I know what to look for anyway?

Unfortunately, I think it comes down to money. And maybe taste. Both Josh and I like the idea of eating more local food, but money has been tight since we spent it all on traveling, and local can mean more money (yes, I know, not always. But it rarely seems cheaper). We also have talked about how we wouldn't be willing to give up things like chocolate or coffee if we couldn't find them locally grown/made. I think the same is true for clothing. I don't know that I have the time and money to investigate all my purchases, and I don't know if I'd find items to suit my tastes if I went only local. Also, I like knowing that I may be supporting an entire Cambodian family by giving work to a young woman who pays her brother's school tuition (another topic...). I suppose one thing I can do is frequent stores and labels who make an effort to buy garments from reputable factories with decent working conditions (although I can't help but point out that even a fairly grown banana takes an awfully lot of petrol to get to your grocery store- what about a cambodian shirt?). Obviously, cottage industries and those small shops are a great (and expensive) way to support growing economies. I guess it's like fair trade for clothing.

(what a confusing world.)

So. Anyone have any recommendations? Shops? Websites? Thoughts?

A Forgotten Statistic

41 : The number of times asked if we wanted a ride in/on a rickshaw/auto/horse/mule/camel/elephant in 15 minutes outside of the Taj Mahal.

For those of you keeping track that means 2.73 times a minute or once every 22 seconds.

Statistics made fun! (2 of 2)

Well, here it is. More unending information about our trip to Asia. This is the second, and possibly more entertaining, of two lengthy wrap-up posts on our trip. Here we take that information and put it into hard and dirty facts. Remember how we spent more time waiting in airports than on airplanes? Or how we got ice cream 47% of our days? Or how we saw four dead people on the trip? Well, here are more such facts. (Yes, many, many more.)

Trust me, you might find these amusing...
Please keep in mind that some of these are subjective and relevant to our experience only. (I don't know why I felt that I had to say that.) Miscellaneous is perhaps the most interesting category, so keep scrolling!

Places

12	Number of “countries” visited (Macau and Hong Kong separately b/c separate visas- we realize the real answer is 11)
13	Number of countries planned to visit (no Indonesia and Maldives)
18	Number of borders crossed
	Favorite border crossing: Bangladesh to India at Burimari
	Most hellish border crossing: Thailand to Cambodia at Poipet
.
4	Shortest number of days spent in a country (Singapore)
35	Longest number of days spent in a country (India)
.
$40	Most expensive entrance fee (3-day pass for Angkor Wat)
$20	Most expensive fee barely worth it (Taj Mahal- ok, it's worth it, but that's a lot of money for a building)
16	World Heritage Sites visited
Nepal	Country where we visited the most World Heritage Sites
Bagan	Favorite ruins (in Bagan, Myanmar)
.
Nepal	Poorest country we visited (according to the UN)
Bangladesh	Most corrupt country we visited (according to the UN)
Myanmar	Most oppressive country we visited (hands down)

Visas

4	Number of visas acquired in advance
$647	Total amount spent on visas
$100	Most expensive visa per person (Bangladesh)
free	Cheapest visa (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau)

Expenses

$6.06	Smallest amount spent in one day (July 20- our flight to Dhaka was cancelled and the Bangkok airport took care of us!)
$119.70	Highest amount spent in one “normal” day with no flights/visas (June 13- travelling from Koh Tao, Thailand to Penang Malaysia by ferry and train. Next? Singapore Zoo day)
.
$45	Most expensive single souvenir (a blanket from Jaisalmer, India)
$230	Most expensive single item (the flight from Bangkok to Dhaka)
$3000	Biggest savings (getting our flights to Asia with NWA miles)

Accomodation

Transportation

90	Hours spent waiting at the airport
88	Hours spent on airplanes
.
24	Hours of longest contiguous ride on mass transportation (train from Ajanta Caves to Bangalore, India)
20	Hours of longest bus ride (Inle Lake to Yangon, Myanmar)
15	Hours of most exhausting bus ride (Indian border to Kathmandu)
.
Thailand	Best train (night train from Chomporn, Thailand to Malaysia)
Nepal	Worst buses
Bangladesh	Worst driving (India and Cambodia close seconds)
Myanmar	Strangest driving (because of the sudden switch to right hand side driving even though most of the vehicles were made for the left!)

Food

$.13	Cheapest glass of beer (Vietnam)
$.50	Cheapest full meal (Angkor Wat, Cambodia)
$50	Most expensive meal (Sunday brunch in Bangalore, India)
.
47	Percentage of days with ice cream
65	Number of ice creams purchased
6	Number of ice creams purchased that shouldn’t have been (due to undisclosed electricity outages… turning anything frozen soggy)
.
Singapore	Best country for food (India is up there, too)
Bangladesh	Worst country for food (But Myanmar was close)
Bangladesh	Best cup of tea
Vietnam	Best cup of coffee (see next item)
Sweetened condensed milk	Favorite new food item (who knew this was so tasty in coffee?)
Vietnam	Country with most "interesting" meal
Cambodia	Country with favourite meal (But really, how to choose? Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Pnom Penh, Cambodia, create-your-own spring rolls in Hoi An, Vietnam, The Strand in Yangon, Myanmar, or street food in Thailand)

Miscellaneous

1	Number of near-charging rhinos encountered
2	Pairs of underwear Josh took along
3	Number of t-shirts Josh took along
4	Number of dead people seen (pulled out of the river in Pnom Penh, in the river in Singapore, on the street in Delhi, and Ho Chi Minh himself in HaNoi)
5	Feenstras met (Mom, Dad, Jennie, and 2 Dutch folk in Myanmar!)
6	Number of locals who asked us to take pictures of themselves and then mail them the photos
7	Number of people who asked for our contact information in Bangladesh (mind you, contact information does not mean email address. Most people didn’t seem to have one.)
15:40	Hours spent underwater
16	Number of books read by Megan on the trip
25	Number of books read by Josh on the trip
26	Number of Bird photographs taken
27	Number of photographs taken of ourselves, by ourselves
3,668	Number of photos taken altogether
4.46	Gigabytes that absurd number of photographs now takes up on our computer
.
12	Shots (vaccines) received before leaving
382	Prescription pills bought in the USA
69	Number of times offered drugs in Asia
.
Myanmar	Place of most awkward moment (or the man who kept asking about my sister in Dhaka)
Laos	Place of best happenstance experience (a business party we got in on…)
Malaysia	Place with weirdest Pinocchio-Rudolph-esque bug ever seen
Endless	Number of statistics Megan & Josh could keep coming up with

Statistics made fun! (1 of 2)

These are a few pages from my Asia journal.
Yes, they indeed show a ridiculously anal, itemized account of our every expense.
Yes, we actually wrote it all down.
And yes, I am actually admitting to it.
Now most people might guess that this was done to keep ourselves on budget. That is not exactly true: it helped us spend more! Our trip proved what Josh and I already suspected: we are incredibly cheap, don't like to spend money, and are fairly good at not doing it (plus we complain when we do). How else would we have been able to save up enough to take off for 8 months so soon after living as grad students in New York City? Saving a dollar here and a dollar there may not add up to much, but when a dollar here is a meal there and a dollar there is a quarter of a night's stay somewhere else, each cheap peanut butter and jelly sandwich contributes!

So the accounting was actually a necessity to prove to ourselves that we were indeed well under or at budget. It allowed us to spend more, to splurge on things like Mr. Minh's moto tour and a second round of diving in Malaysia. But what's fun right now is that it let us figure out just where our money went... thanks to Microsoft Excel! So get ready for some fun and crazy statistics from the spreadsheet from hell.

Here’s just a sample:
We spent more time waiting at the airport than on airplanes.
We spent almost 9.5 days on buses.
66% of our guest house rooms had attached bathrooms.
Our cheapest night cost us less than $2.
We saw four dead people on the trip.
Bangladesh has the best tea.
We had ice cream 47% of our days out.

Find out what ridiculous percentage of our money was spent on transport (plus some other interesting stuff).
Let's start with some graphs.
First, here's how our expenses divided up:

We can't believe that our transportation took up 37% of our total expenses, especially since we usually took the low-budget routes. I guess it makes sense- we covered A LOT of ground in 5 months. I think we could have done the same trip in a year and things would have evened out a bit. As for our pre-trip expenses, we had to get almost every vaccine known to humankind, so this includes things like my final Hep A&B and Josh's Tetanus booster. We did take malaria medication for much of the trip, but that was the cheap Walmart variety. Our insurance was only about $420 for the 5 months. Still, altogether pricey! Finally, that diving amount both horrifies and comforts me. We spent so much! But think of how much our trip really cost if you don't include that splurge...

A country by country account also reflects where we dove:
We included the costs of transportation in the country totals (unlike the daily amounts budgeted by guidebooks like Lonely Planet which do not), but not any flights between them. It's also interesting to compare the graph above with the number of days we spent in each country below:
That gives you an idea of which countries cost more on a day to day basis. A little strange that Bangladesh and Cambodia ended up so high, but the reasons are on the chart:

Did you notice those exchange rates listed? We really did take out over a million (dong) from an atm in Vietnam! Also, the largest denomination of Myanmar currency kyat (pronounced chat) is a 1000 kyat note. One USD is about 1200 kyat, so when we changed a few hundred dollars worth, we basically ended up with a few hundred dollars worth of one dollar bills to carry around!

We've got a whole lot more random stats, but I think we'll put those in a second post. One can get too much of a good thing, I think, even with statistics. So stay tuned for such tid-bits as...

Our cheapest full meal cost $.50 while the most expensive was $50.
25% of our guest house rooms had TVs.
We covered an area roughly the size of the United States.
We encountered 1 almost-charging rhino and 5 Feenstras on the trip.

OK, Megan's selection of "next-best" photographs...

It's true. I did think that Josh de-selected some beautiful photographs from our collections (see his recent post), especially some of the ones including people or implying a further narrative. So here we go. Here are MY top 36. Well, not entirely- I think Josh got most of the good ones. So while these may not be the "best", they are at least quite compelling....
So here are the second top 36. (yes, we'll stop after this.)
See the top 37 through 72-ish





(Some of these are better looked at large (by clicking on them) in order to see the people and expressions. Of course, I apologize if they end up monster size and too big for your web browser...)

































Oh. And number 72...

Josh's choice of "best" photographs...

Well it was going to happen sooner or later, so here are some of my favorite photos from our Asia trip. I kept trying to cut it down- I wanted to have a "my ten favorite photos" but I couldn't get there... so here are my top 36 (not bad when you realize I had to choose from about 4,800). Megan may disagree on some of these (I cut several of which she commented, "But that other picture is much more interesting.") But these are my choices, so I decide. Anyway, most of these have stories and I'll include an explanation or two, but for the most part, here you go! And don't forget if you click on any of the photos they should blow up to their full size. See the top 36...

This photo needs explaining. We were at a woman's house as she taught us about tea and gave us a sample (and then we bought some). She INSISTED that she take an "action shot" of us drinking... and this is what came up. Also keep in mind that we got a new camera for this trip. It has a 3 inch display screen that is quite easy to see... but even with that this is the photo that she took. :)

In my head, this is India.