The sunset from Narita

on the last day of our trip, en route back to San Francisco. How strange it will be to be back home after 3 months of traveling!

The staff at AB Eye Clinic

The holy ganga river

Gandhi ghat in Patna

Antarjyoti

Meaning "inner light," Antarjyoti is a school for blind girls (the only one of its kind in the state of Bihar). The doctors we are working/staying with played a part in its creation (and stay involved to this day). There are currently ~80 young women studying here, free of charge. It is a truly beautiful place. I wish we could have spent more time with these amazing young women!

After surgery

patients need to be examined, given eye drops, and dark glasses to wear. Hitesh giving post-op care.

Patients waiting for their free eye surgery

Eye Camp Hanuman temple, Old Patna

The Rotary Club's Inner Wheel group organized a free eye camp (or eye screening day) at a temple in Old Patna. Upon our arrival, we were blessed (note the garlands and tilaka) , and then all the waiting patients were screened. Those with cataracts were scheduled for free surgeries in the upcoming weeks.

Charity Clinics - Danapur

Patients waiting to be seen at the Danapur charity clinic.

Giving a patient a pair of eyeglasses.




























Me and one of the optometrists, Abishek.

Daily Charity Clinics

Since many of the very poor cannot afford to travel, the eye doctors we were working with travel to far-flung areas of Patna on a daily basis. While we were volunteering, we accompanied them to do vision screenings, and distribute reading glasses. These clinics were one of the highlights of our time in Patna! Depending on the location of the charity clinic, they would take place in various donated spaces, from a room at the Red Cross center, to a general practice/family doctor's office, to a temple, etc . Here's a shot from the Red Cross clinic that takes place on Mondays.

Pawapuri

As volunteers, we had one day off per week (Sundays). Our first Sunday, we were able to visit Pawapuri, a sacred site for Jains. A beautiful temple has been built there.

On our first day as volunteers...

we found ourselves getting dressed in scrubs and assisting with free cataracts surgeries. We helped the patients enter and exit the operating room (which is called the operation theatre or OT for short), as well as with applying eye drops and bandaging the eyes post surgery. I have to admit I started feeling a little unwell during the first surgeries (like I might faint) but after getting some air and reentering the OT, I was fine.

All 1,100+ pairs of glasses arrive in Patna

Here they are! The area where we stored them (downtown Bangkok) was not much affected by the floods, so the glasses did not spend the last weeks underwater and were in good shape. We did get stopped by customs in India who I'm sure suspected we were about to go into business here!).

Golden Buddha

The Golden Buddha in Bangkok - made from pure gold.

12,600 monks!

Today, our last day in Chiang Mai, we witnessed an annual event that has occured for the past 8 years - Buddhists giving alms to 12,600 monks in a 6am ceremony on Chang Klan Road. This year, much of the donations were instant noodles and uncooked rice (as part of the offerings will be donated to the flood victims in Central Thailand). You can read a bit more about it here. When it came time for us to approach the monks and donate, we had to wait our turn, as there were literally thousands of people donating food and other goods. Here is a photo as the monks began their procession down the street.

Magic inside the chedi?

We visited the north's most holy Wat (Wat Prathap). It is considered the most holy because there is apparently a magical relic buried in the chedi (stupa). There sure were a lot of people there, and wow! Check out the bling!

Well, hello elephants!

What an amazing day at the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for elephants injured or abandoned. We met an elephant that was blinded when her owner shot slingshots at her eyes when she refused to work anymore (she was a logging elephant). Two others who had stepped on landmines and whose legs became injured. The park rehabilitates the elephants and invites people to come feed and bathe the elephants. So, we fed elephants bananas (HUGE bunches of bananas) and pineapples, squash, and other foods (they are vegetarians). Did you know elephants eat ~500 pounds of food a day?! Yeow!

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Thailand

Well, there was no tofurky or veggie stuffing in sight, but we did have a nice Thanksgiving here in Chiang Mai. We decided to take a Thai vegetarian cooking class in honor of Thanksgiving, and the plan is to, next year on Thanksgiving, host a Thai vegetarian meal - that gives us a year to practice and perfect the recipes!

The cooking school was May Kaidee's (May lives and runs the school in Bangkok and the Chiang Mai is run by her sister Duan). Duan's husband took some photos during the class and posted them on Facebook here (I know, I know, we need to get them on Google+!)

Here's us rolling some fresh spring rolls!

Ahh, Thai iced tea!

Slow ride...

take it easy! :)

Today was the second day on the slow boat to Thailand. It takes two full-day boat trips (hence, slow boat!) to get from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai, the border crossing from Laos into Chang Khong, Thailand. The scenery is breathtaking, lush green hills all around and almost nothing else. The slow boat was definitely the way to go.

So this is what it feels like to be a waterfall!

Today we visited Kuang Si Waterfall in Luang Prabang. Check it out - stunning!

We hiked up a steep route to the top of the falls, and I finally learned a bit about what it must be like to be a waterfall! You can literally stand at the top of the falls and look down - and this is part of what you see! (For liability reasons, I don't think you could ever do this in the US!)

And here's the view Ms. Waterfall sees every day. :)

The sun sets on another beautiful day in Laos

Luang Prabang

What's that?

Wat That! :) Luang Prabang, Laos

Fill your plate for 10,000 kip

The night food market in Luang Prabang: buy a plate for about $1.25, and fill it up with vegetarian delights! (The meat dishes are extra) There are about 20 dishes to choose from. We've already eaten dinner there twice! Hopefully once more before we leave...

Sorry the shot is blurry - it was before dinner #2, and I was so excited I couldn't hold the camera still. ;)

Vang Vieng scenery

Wow! Vang Vieng really surprised us. It's filled with limestone hills that rise up right next to the river which makes for really majestic scenery. It's not captured all that well in this photo, but hopefully you at least get a flavor...

Mulberries galore

We stayed at an organic farm in the town of Vang Vieng. Located about 4km north of town, it's a beautiful little place, and their specialty is mulberry products. Mulberry tea, mulberry leaf tempura, mulberry shakes and mulberry pancakes. If you're interested in farming you can volunteer here.

Smoky Sunset

The sunsets in Vientiane are hazy, orange glowing extravaganzas. We've been watching a lot of sunsets in Laos, actually, which seems fitting given how mellow it has been here.

Buddha kitsch

Buddha Park outside of Vientiane is fulled with Buddhist and Hindu imagery. It was created by a seemingly wacky character and it's a pretty fun place to spend a half-day. The most famous thing there is this HUGE reclining Buddha, pictured below. I also took a photo from the feet so you get a sense of how large it really is!

My new favorite fruit on this trip

Can anyone guess what this shake is made of?

A monster of concrete?

Now in Laos' capital city, Vientiane, we climbed to the top of Patuxay, at the end of a large blvd likened to Paris' Champs de Elysees. Whoever wrote the description called it a monster of concrete. I rather liked it!

Sleeper bus #2

We traveled by sleeper bus overnight from Pakse, Laos (where we headed from Don Det) to Vientiane. This sleeper bus wasn't individual reclining seats, but was comprised of double beds! It would have been a great night's sleep if the temperature hadn't been similar to sleeping in an icebox! ;)

The sun sets on the Island of Don Det

We're on a small island in the Mekong River, in an area called Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands). Lazy days spent swinging on hammocks are the name of the game here. A perfect way to unwind after the hectic days exploring Angkor. Here's the sunset as seen from my hammock on our first of 4 nights there.

Angkor - Recommendations

Wow! We spent the last 2 days exploring some of the temples of Angkor and they are truly breathtaking. Since I have some friends coming here shortly, I'll make this post more of a recommendation/review post.

Sunset at Angkor: So, all the guidebooks say to watch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng, and imply that the sun will be setting right behind Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, Phnom Bakheng is really cool - up on a hill with a magnificent view of the area, but unless you're really into sunsets, I would say, check this out at another time. The crowds get nuts, when the sun sets all you hear is a ton of cameras clicking away around you, and they limit the amount of people who can climb up there, so you might journey out there only to be disappointed.

Angkor Thom & Angkor Wat: Can definitely be covered by bicycle. Here's a link to our bike route. It's nice to move at your own pace and see the area by bike. There are some fancy mountain bike rentals in Siem Reap, but we decided they weren't work the extra expense ($4/day vs. $1-2/day) especially since they were more likely to be stolen. There are tons of places in Siem Reap that sent them, and we found a particularly lovely family who rents them at the old market bridge (on the east side of the river) right where street 28 starts. They are right on the corner, they give you a free water with your rental, and they are soooooo nice! We visited Bayon (a must see!), Baphuon (pretty cool and not many people make this a nice place to stop), and Angkor Wat today.

Faraway temples: We got a tuk tuk driver to take us to the faraway spots (including Banteay Srey, Ta Phrom, and the landmine museum) for $25. Not sure if this was a good deal or not! Banteay Srey was 37 km from town, so it was a good 1+ hour drive there.

Hotel: We stayed at the New Riverside Hotel for $16/night. It was a little bit further away from town, but they have free tuk tuk service into town, breakfast included, and a swimming pool which was nice to cool off in after a hot day out visiting the temples!

Food: We found an amazing looking restaurant called Chamkar on our last night here so we didn't get to eat here. Organic Rice, totally vegetarian takes on Khmer cuisine. Some people eating there said the food was delish. Keri & Michael - eat here and tell us about it! It's on Pub Street Alley.

Bayon Temple

Ta Phrom Temple

Khmer Rouge

Almost 2 million people died in the 70s because of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. We visited S21, a high school turned prison that held 20,000 people during the regime, almost all of whom were imprisoned for 1-3 months, then killed. Walking through the former classrooms and seeing the cells they created was chilling.

Goodbye Vietnam. Off to Cambodia...by boat!

We left Chao Doc by boat - there houses are "riverfront" property about half the year (during rainy reason) and during the dry season they are "rice field view property.

The water of the Mekong Delta...

is languid, moving slowly like milky coffee might at the bottom of your sink. When traveling by paddle boat, it is quiet here, save the occasional sound of the paddle dipping into the river.

Touring the DMZ

Today we toured the Demilitarized Zone of Vietnam - the 5km (on each side) "buffer zone" between North and South Vietnam. This was also the most heavily bombed area during the Vietnam war. The highlight was visiting the incredible Vinh Moc Tunnels - 3 sets of tunnels about 15, 30, and 90 feet below the ground where villagers lived for up to 6 years during the war, only emerging under the cloak of night. There was even a school operating underground in the tunnels. Even more astoundingly, 17 babies were born in these tunnels! We were able to walk through part of them, and saw the tiny spaces each of the families were allotted (see below - the statues are about life size so you can see how tight space was).

Touring Hue by dragon boat

We stopped at pagodas and tombs of 3 of the Nguyen emperors.

Incense Making outside of Hue

Ingredients: sawdust, tree sap, and either cinnamon or sandlewood

Pictured are the incense sticks before being rolled in the sticky scented mixture, and then one of the villagers rolling a stick of incense.

Does anyone else love sugarcane juice?

My Son

Today we visited the ruins of the Cham empire (from the 7th-12th centuries) outside of Hoi An. They are beautiful - sadly, many of them were destroyed by US bombs during the war.

Market, Hoi An

We meandered through the market early this morning and saw fresh noodles, fruits, veggies and lots more being sold. I had my breakfast at a market stall - tofu, veggies, and rice. It was huge! It has been difficult to say "I am vegetarian" in an understandable way in Vietnamese...but I still try. What ends up happening is I finally point to the words in the guidebook...sigh! :) Here's a shot from the market.

Sleeper Bus!

Why don't we have these in the US?! Awesomely comfy buses that you can take to travel up and down the coast of Vietnam.

War Remnants Museum

In Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), there is a peace-promoting museum with the remnants of the wars in the 50s, 60s and 70s, including US military artillery, photographs from international photojournalists, documentation of the international movement against the Vietnam war, photographs and stories of the after effects of Agent Orange, amongst other things. We spent the afternoon here - it was a roller coaster of an experience, and highly worthwhile. Ask me about this if you're interested - would love to talk more about it, but don't want to pontificate here. :)

The sun streams into the Jade Emperor Pagoda, Ho Chi Minh City