CouchSurfing!

I finally completed my first official participation in the global hospitality movement known as CouchSurfing! En route to the Faroe Islands, I had a 24 hour layover in Copenhagen. And what a layover it was. Always budget-minded, I originally contemplated staying at the airport, or perhaps finding a cheap hostel to hole up in overnight. Instead, I found myself met at the metro station by my friendly and welcoming host, napping the afternoon away in a cozy apartment at Copenhagen University, and enjoying a traditional Danish Christmas celebration with graduate students from all over Europe. Denmark, Holland, Finland, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, San Marino (did you know it's a country?), Slovenia, Austria, and Germany were all there. I was the only North American/Indian representative, and thus was engaged in many a glögg and snaps-infused conversation about Bush, Iraq, yoga, and Hinduism. Good times were had by all.

I highly encourage all of my family and friends to create profiles and get involved. How else can you stay for free and get a genuine cultural experience almost anywhere in the world? Or provide such an opportunity to a kindred traveler coming through your neck of the woods? All while making friends from around the world and taking small steps in breaking down the barriers that divide us. Check out this recent article from the NY Times. So go on, make a profile, and join the fun!

and the laptop's back!

After a month and a half of separation from the world, I'm finally able to re-join the 21st century! Although the initial problem was mostly my fault, and the delay was mostly India's fault, I still place full blame on the fact that my laptop is a Sony. Needless to say, I'm already excited to return to the world of the Apple next summer.

So where to begin. In mid-October I left noise and crowds of India for a ten day jaunt through Singapore and Malaysia. What a difference. On the elevated commuter train from Changi Airport into downtown Singapore, I would not have been surprised to hear that we had actually landed in suburban Anytown, USA. Wide, clean, empty streets logically connecting office parks and housing developments. Big leafy trees and green grassy lawns everywhere. Not that I necessarily like this landscape better than the real-life craziness of India, but it helped me appreciate the differences in a way I hadn't on my arrival back in August.

Several hours of ohhhing and ahhhing at the skyscrapers and ultra-modernity of Singapore later, my friends Rhett and Aaron and I caught a bus that took us over rainforested hills to another surprise of a southeast Asian city. Singapore I had heard about, and was prepared for what I saw. Kuala Lumpur, however, was a different story. What comes to mind when you think of Malaysia? Jungle and orangutans? Natives and palm huts? Those things still exist, for sure, but Malaysia is actually much more than that. An officially Muslim state, only fifty years post-independence, that has somehow grabbed economic development by the horns and held on for the surprisingly uneventful ride to its current position at country number 61 on the UN's Human Development Index. This is compared to India at number 126. Two former British colonies, independent for a similar amount of time. Why, and how?

Now for some photos. There are always too many, but I promise I've done my best to weed as many out as possible. Be ready for more posts in the near future on my everyday life in Vellore and quick trips to the Andaman Islands and Karnataka.

We were all pretty worried after seeing this notice on our immigration cards.

The genuinely breathtaking Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur.
Featured in Entrapment, Children of Men, and Amazing
Race, they were the tallest buildings in the
world between 1998 and 2004.

View from the KL Tower (fifth tallest telecommunications tower in the world).
They like their records, but unfortunately keep getting outdone.
Somehow I'm confident they'll be back on top soon.

That was one big Malaysian man. Listening to his iPod, on a
subway more modern than anything we've got in the U.S.

A fishing village on the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia.
This is more how I initially pictured the whole country.

Our lunch in said fishing village. I've never eaten
so many invertebrates in one sitting.

Awwww, baby octupus. Not sure if those were cooked or not.

Feeding the fish on an off-shore farm just south of Penang. We definitely did
not want to fall into these pens. Fish farming is a tough issue from
an ecosystem health perspective. Like most things
in life, there are no easy answers.

Can't have a post without a few macro shots. These are all from a hike
in a truly virgin rainforest in the state of Perak.

Mmmmm. I keep telling myself I'm going to "get into" mushrooms. Remind
me to join the Boston Mycological Club when I get back next year.



These ones might be a bit small to eat. Has anyone studied the extraordinary
strength of mini-mushroom stems? This could be a serious breakthrough.



The elusive rafflesia flower. We saw budding and rotting flowers, but none
in the prime of their nastiness. This is the largest flower in the world, and
it has one of the strangest life cycles as well. It is parasitic: with no stems,
leaves, or roots, it survives as a collection of cells in its host vine until
it comes time for one of these mega-flowers to pop out and grace the
surrounding forest with the smell of rotting meat. This particular
specimen was about 18 inches in diameter.



Wait, does Aaron have prosthetic legs, or is he just demonstrating
our nifty leech-prevention invention? It's all about the nylons.



Cool guys. Beside a raging jungle waterfall.


Foolish guy. Being pounded by the same.



Little girl from the Semai tribe, whose house was
only 50 meters from the above waterfall.



Right before it jumped at me. Seriously! Fortunately my lightening reflexes were
too quick. Thank you high school football and innumerable receiver drills.



Our shower spot while staying up in the mountains. This monstrous pipe is taking
water from a river deep in the jungle to supply all those skyscrapers in KL.



Aaron enjoying a local dragon fruit, or pitaya. They don't have a very strong
flavor, but look ridiculously cool and are supposed to be full of antioxidants.



This is for you, Dad. Don't you wish Annie would just quietly
laze around all day? Oh wait, that's what cats do, not dogs.



Semai hut out in the boonies. It might be a "living museum"
if it weren't for the day's laundry hanging out to dry.



One thing I love about the rainforest: new life all the time and everywhere.



Cocoa pod straight from the forest. The fruit has a unique tangy
taste --- nothing resembling chocolate. That comes from the
dried and fermented seeds. Not to be confused with the coca
plant, which is used in the production of cocaine.



More laundry, more beautiful people
teetering on the edge of modernity.



Traditional Semai meal, made with wild plants straight from the
surrounding forest. Most of it tasted kind of like grass. Come on,
everyone who has ever played a sport has tasted grass. I actually
enjoyed it, but others were a bit more suspicious.



We were surprisingly quite accurate with the 10 foot blow guns. The Semai use
the poisonous sap from a native tree on the darts, and told us that
such a dart could kill a human in a matter of minutes.



Breaking all my own rules about handling wildlife, and especially primates, I
became fast friends with little King the macaque. He was found orphaned 3
months earlier by the family that ran our beach huts on Tioman Island,
and is quite a character. Unfortunately I don't have high hopes for
him long term. They've been feeding him a diet of chocolate milk
and bananas, and even if he does survive to adulthood he
will be completely messed up psychologically. Poor
thing. Don't worry, I always washed my hands
thoroughly, and did my best to convince
the family to switch him to a more
suitable diet.



If only monkeys made better pets!



Probably the strangest insect I have ever seen.



Enjoying some refreshment after a sweaty walk through the forest to a nearby
beach. One man lives here, scraping by on the little bit he charges people like
us for coconuts and freshly caught and cooked fish and rice. We also met a
Danish couple in their early 70s who have been sailing around the world
for 8 years. Their yacht was anchored outside the reef and they had
taken the dingy in to explore yet one more deserted tropical beach.
Although the diving on Tioman was nothing to write home
about, this beach and the one we were staying at
had some of the best snorkeling
I've experienced yet.



On the ferry back to the mainland, we passed by so many little
islands just waiting for their own Robinson Crusoe.
Or Tom Hanks, whichever the case may be.



Before: untouched virgin rainforest, supporting
an incredible diversity of animal and plant life.



After: Remember FernGully? Well it's true, except that here the
rainforests are being bulldozed to make room for guess what?



Yup, palm oil plantations. Palm oil is used to make biodiesel, the demand for
which has been increasing exponentially over the last few years. So yay! No
dependence on fossil fuels for our energy needs. But is it worth the loss of
some of the last biodiversity hotspots in the world? Corn in the U.S.
midwest, sugar cane in Brazil, or palm oil in Malaysia: these are
all temporary fixes for a long-term problem. We need to be
focusing instead on truly renewable energy sources, like
the sun, wind, and [antimatter]. (What? I just read
Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Fun story,
and not so horribly heretical as
I had been led to believe).
Yet another tough
ecosystem-level
question.



Poor Rhett. Can't bring his durian inside the Singapore airport.

So that was our trip.