Snapshot: Red Square

A picture of my friends and I posing in Red Square around 8th/9th grade:

Map of Peru Itinerary

Here's my current itinerary for my Peru trip, decided to map it out. Unfortunately we'll only get to explore the south, which makes up the "Gringo Trail"; the north is more off-the-beaten-track.

I wish that the route would be a more perfect circle, but I'm perfectly content with what we have right now. As a 3rd world country Peru still has a rough domestic transportation network; buses are the most reliable form of transportation next to planes. Trains run only in the south.

Eurotrip 2015?

Next year I might be in Amman, Jordan living with my Mom on the U.S. Embassy compound. This is awesome. It means access to Israel, North Africa (i.e. trekking Morocco), the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and last but definitely not least, Europe!!!!!! I'll be on a tight budget, so basically, flying from Amman means finding a cheap trip to a European airport, preferably in the very east of Europe or the ver west, because I'll want to make an arch from coast to coast. Here are some sample itineraries:

1. Barcelona --> Bordeaux --> small French town --> Amsterdam --> Berlin --> Munich --> Venice --> Croatia --> Athens

Quintessential European route. 

2. Jerusalem --> Tel  Aviv --> Istanbul --> Athens --> Berlin --> Hamburg --> Amsterdam --> Munich 

Exploring less countries but soaking them in more- getting a taste of Israel and Turkey as well.

3. Barcelona --> Bordeaux --> Paris --> Munich --> Berlin --> Amsterdam 

This route takes advantage of the Eurail Select 4 Countries Pass. Basically, you can travel by train between 4 bordering countries for a good price. Another quintessential European route, albeit smaller than the first itinerary's. 

Backpacking

After taking this Peru trip in the summer I might take another semester or year off from school... gap years are addicting. If I do then I want to invest in a great backpack for Latin America, Europe, you name it. For Peru I'll hike the Colca Canyon for 3 days without (insofar as I know) the assistance of any mules/horses or porters, meaning everything, excluding tents and food, will go into a backpack. For the second and longer trek in Peru (5/6days) we'll have horses and mules to carry our load. I've just gotten in to the backpacking business and am fascinated by all the options, itineraries, etc... A 40L backpack will do just right for Peru, but what if I want to go to Europe for a month by myself? That'll might require some more space, but then again it might not! That's the beauty of backpacking: light is always better. Also, I might want to take a small duffel along with a 40L to Peru, but I kind of want to just pile everything into a backpack to say that I did!

When it comes to retail stores REI does it right. They have a huge selection of Deuter, Osprey, Gregory, you name it. I'm leaning towards a Deuter 40+10, which essentially means that 10 more liters of storage space can be opened up by extending the top of the bag. Here's a picture:

Snapshot- Agra, India

On our dad's shoulders at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. 

Exploring Peru

I'm way too excited for my trip to Peru in July and August. I'll be spending four weeks there- the first two by myself, solo-ing it in Lima, the Amazon jungle, and Colca Canyon. Here's a breakdown of what I have in mind:

1. Arrive in Lima, fly to Iquitos. Brief background on Iquitos:

• located in the Amazon basin
• located in northern Peru, in the east
• used to be a wealthy city due to a thriving rubber industry
• the famous Belen market is on a floating island
• Iquitos can be reached only by plane or boat (boat trip can take 3-7 days)
• in fact, it is the largest city in the world that is inaccessible by car
• its main industry is tourism
• close to 1,000 species live in or around Iquitos

2. Amazon jungle tour: I'll take a four or five day tour through the Amazon. Groups usually start out in Iquitos then boat two hours away to neighboring lodges. From each lodge travelers usually go on hikes through the jungle, bird watch, observe various species, swim with dolphins, catch fish, and take pictures with monkeys. Sounds fun to me. 

3. Fly from Iquitos to Arequipa. Spend two days in Arequipa acclimating. Brief background on Arequipa:

• known as the "White City"
• home to Peru's Constitutional Court
• second most industrialized city in the country
• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• home to 14 churches or temples, four chapels, five convents, and three monasteries
• starting point for Colca Canyon trek

4. Embark on Colca Canyon trek for three days and two nights: Colca Canyon is Peru's third-most visited tourist attraction, laying 100 miles north of Arequipa. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Hikers are picked up at 3 am from their hotel to travel to the valley. After lunch they begin a 4 hour descent to the floor of the canyon. Then hikers interact with the locals, enjoy dinner, and usually stay in a local family's house. On the second day hikers trek to the Andean village of Tapay. They then descend to the Cola River, arriving at an oasis. On the third day of the trek hikers embark on a three hour walk starting at 4 am. At Cruz del Condor they have the chance to admire the majestic flight of the Andean condor birds. Hikers travel to Chivay where they have the opportunity to visit the thermal baths of medicinal waters. Then hikers return to Arequipa. 

5. Take an overnight bus from Arequipa to Cusco- meet with my friend there. I'll finally meet with my friend Trevor in Cusco, the Inca capital. Brief overview of Cusco:

• in southeastern Peru next to the Andes mountain range
• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• historical capital of Peru
• surrounded by Incan ruins
• travel hub for adventures to Machu Picchu and related treks
• home to a magnificent Plaza de Armas
• rests at 11,000 feet

6. Hike the Salkantay trek (refer to my previous blog post)

7. Take an overnight bus from Cusco to Puno, the hometown of Lake Titicaca. Here's a brief overview of Lake Titicaca:

• on the border of Peru and Bolivia (Bolivian mountains can be seen from the lake)
• largest lake in South America by volume of water
• highest navigable lake in the world, resting at an elevation of 13,000 feet
• home to 44 artificial islands built by the Uros people
• the people of the Uros live on these islands
• artificial islands were built on bundle totora reeds
• islanders still maintain the bundled reeds, adding necessary amounts
• the Uros initially built the islands to prevent attacks from their neighbors, the Incans and Collas
• 
  

8. Fly from Juliaca (next to Lake Titicaca) back to Lima. Spend three days in Lima. We'll hopefully visit the Nazca lines, take a day tour of the capital, and stay in a fun party-atmosphered hostel to celebrate our grueling excursions down south. The Nazca lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert about 6 hours by car from Lima. They were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The arid plateau stretches more than 50 miles between the towns of Nazca and Palpa. Scholars believe that the lines were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD (when airplanes did NOT exist!!!). The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, and lizards. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general they ascribe religious significance to them. 

Here's a brief overview of Lima:

• capital of Peru
• largest city in Peru, home to 9 million people
• in the central coastal part of the country overlooking the Pacific Ocean
• fifth largest city in the Americas
• founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro 
• around one-third of the Peruvian population lives in Lima's metropolitan area
• Limas has developed a huge tourism industry, characterized by its historic center (a World Heritage Site), archeological sites, nightlife, museums, art galleries, festivals, and traditions

After three days in Peru's capital we'll fly back to DC!! Can't wait to see what surprises Peru has in store for us. If I'm lucky enough to actually go, I'll be the first in my family to visit South America. Exciting stuff. 

Snapshot- Vatican City

My twin sister (Helen) and I visited Italy with my mom and Oma, seen here in the middle. Oma looks like she's 40 years old! 

Salkantay Trek

It's really obnoxious how much I'm looking forward to Peru. I feel like I have a mandate to lecture anyone and everyone on Machu Picchu and the various Andean treks that bring you there. So here we go: I'll tell you a little bit about the Salkantay Trek, one of the alternative routes (in relation to the traditional "Inca Trail") that winds its way to Machu Picchu, the Incans' holy grail of seemingly everything. This trek was voted by National Geographic as one of the 25 best in the world. It lasts 5 days and 4 nights, one of which is spent at a hostel in Aguas Calientes, a small touristy town that lies one hour away from the base of Machu Picchu.

Day one begins at the small village of Mollepata. Hikers gently make their way up the side of a valley covering a distance of about 16km/9.9 miles and climb 1200m/3937ft. The views throughout the day are fantastic- verdant green mountains, native plants, and flowers with birds surround you. By the end of the day you'll see the snow-capped peaks of Humantay and Salkantay (the Savage) looming high in the distance. Camping at night can get pretty chilly so it'll be a good idea to put on a hat and some gloves.

Similar to the traditional "Inca Trail", day two is the longest and hardest day of the trek. Unlike the traditional "Inca Trail", this day is the most beautiful. The scenery throughout the day goes from one extreme to another. Starting from the high Puna covered in Ichu grass, hikers make their way up and over the Salkantay pass where everything is rock and ice. Then they descend the far side down to warm and lush cloud forest. Along the way hikers see a variety of wildlife from small finches to hummingbirds and toucans. There is also a small chance of seeing the Andean fox, white tailed deer, and rabbit-like chinchillas. From this point on tiny mosquitoes will have a nasty bite- insect repellant is a must.

Day three's final destination is the village of La Playa, which lays 12km down from day two's campsite. The route takes a hiker along the Lluskamayo River through an area that teeters with life and has various coffee and fruit plantations. The scenery is not as stunning as the previous day but the warmth and lush vegetation are a welcome respite from the high mountains left behind. La Playa is well connected with plenty of places to buy snacks and refreshments. Hikers can also try the locally grown coffee. There is an option to visit some local hot springs nearby. A nice beer goes a long way as you soak your sore muscles in hot water.

Day four is the final stretch of the trek before hikers reach Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu. The main focus of the day is a visit to the Incan site of Llactapata. Following an original Inca Trail hikers will arrive to Llactapata by early to mid morning and can enjoy fantastic views of Machu Picchu. After a tour of Llactapata hikers head back down to the mountainside to a hydroelectric station where they can either catch a train to Aguas Calientes or walk the remaining distance.

In Aguas Calientes trekkers stay at a hostel provided by their tour agency. You'l shower for the first time in four days and have an enjoyable dinner, preferably accompanied by pisco sour- the national cocktail.

Hikers wake up early on day five to take the first bus to Machu Picchu as the site opens. A 2-hour guided tour is in order in which hikers will learn about the Incas and visit all of the important areas of the citadel. After the tour hikers will have free time to explore the site by themselves and possibly climb Huayna Picchu. In the afternoon you'll take a train back to Ollantaytambo from where you'll carry on by bus back to Cusco.

Snapshot- The Red Sea, Egypt

This is a picture of my dad and younger sister Phoebe on a boat in the Red Sea. My dad loves his cigars. We went snorkeling around islands and even saw Ricky Martin's private island. Thank God he finally came out of the closet. It was about time. 

Nepal

In Nepal we saw beautiful terrains with terraced land and local villagers. It took us several hours to drive up to our lodge- we drove through the dark on dirt roads and through forests. I vividly remember sitting next to a warm fire in the headquarters of our lodge. The next few days we would embark on treks that lasted up to ten hours. In hindsight they were well worth the time, but during the experience my sisters and I felt overburdened for our ages. Seeing Mount Everest from afar is burned into my memory. Here's what my mom had to say:

the Annapurna mountain range w/ Mount Everest

"From India we had lots of adventures. We went to Nepal, which was one of our most fun family vacations. We flew to Nepal a week before the Maoist insurgency broke out. We were clueless. We had no idea how politically tense the countryside was. From the capital we went to a rural town with incredible views of the Anapurna mountain range. We stayed at a Tiger Tops lodge with stone houses with one unit on top and one unit on bottom. We had a stone house to ourself with a balcony looking out on a mountain range. We ran into a dotcom millionaire family from Washington State. They had burnt out on working in the computer industry. The couple was trying to save their marriage by traveling around the world with their 2 year old son. The son had revolutionary technology back then- a DVD player. You guys were fascinated by that. We went to Khatmandu and stayed at this wonderful lodge (a famous hotel). We went all around Khatmandu sites. It's filled with hippies and backpackers and very cheap bazaars. We went to a big and famous temple and outside we saw some Hindu gurus who were naked. They were smeared with ash. One of them had a brick tied to his penis as an act of penitence, proving his stamina. You guys took it all in. You were used to unconventional sites so it didn't phase you. We also went to Sri Lanka and Thailand and it was just a terrific time to be traveling around with you guys when you were young and willing to have fun and not tied to your cell phones!"

New Delhi, India

After experiencing pre-9/11 Pakistan my family once again moved to New Delhi, India where we would live for two fulfilling years. Fulfilling is actually an understatement. Out of all the countries I've been to India was the most colorful and vivid. Delhi, moreover, was home to a kind of chaotic beauty- it was a city full of rickshaws and spicy food and monuments frequented too many times by tourists. My memories of this amazing place are strong but limited. I remember how holy cows would sit in front of our house chomping on grass our gardener cut off, or the time that I lit matches and threw them off a desert-palace wall in Rajastan. I remember going on a safari that we took in the jungle, or riding elephants with little safeguards. But there's just too much that has slipped my mind. Here is what my parents have to say about our terrific experience in the subcontinent:

Dad:

"I lived in India twice, once before I met your mother. Because I was single and spoke Hindi I would travel alone. Once I took a trip on a local bus to a small northern city next to the Ganges river called Hardwuar where I spent a weekend in the local hotel. That was one of the most fun trips I ever had. I just hung out and talked to people. It's on the Ganges so it has an annual pilgrimage where devout Hindus to celebrate their Gods. As a family we went back and had a lot of fun. We took weekend trips to stay in desert palace hotels, which were private hotels that used to be palaces of former princes and local royalty back when India had a princely class."

"India is overwhelming because it's large and hard to understand. It can be overwhelming. I had two very different experiences working there. The first diplomatic assignment was in the consular section where I interviewed people for visas all day. Toward the end, even with some Punjabi. The second assignment was in the economic section where I followed India's trade policy (WTO policy)."

"I loved the food. Some of the best food I had was in a road-side dhabha (an open air food stall) where you could get fresh curried chicken, dahl, spinach, vegetables, etc. Delhi is a vast city with 15 or 20 million people and you have people from all over India who come to Delhi to find work but it's also a government town. Because it's the federal capital you have a lot of government workers government bureaucrats and the story was just as New Yorkers kind of look down on people from Washington the people from Bombay/Mumbai looked down on people from Delhi ("all they think about is business and politics")."

"I visited Mumbai several times. It's an exciting city. Part of the Indian film industry and fashion industry is there. I also went to Calcutta several times. I worked there temporarily at the consulate and they spoke a different language- Bengali- they had slightly different foods (more seafood)."

Mom:

"India is a completely over the top sensory overload kind of place jammed with people, rickshaws, cars, bicycles, wood fires, and cows. People would defecate in the field, gangs of beggars lined the streets, palaces dotted the desert. It was the most wonderful place I've been. There are more interesting and smart people in India with the exception of China. There's a growing middle class- nice restaurants, restored palaces where we'd go with friends, out to a desert palace. You kids would run around and there would be puppet shows. The adults would drink and talk and play cards and have a good time."

"The kind of culture you'd see both in the architectural ruins of the various empires and rulers. We went to Agrha to see the Taj Mahal. I loved those photos of you- we were down there in June because in June it's so blistering hot so there are not tourists. We were able to book 2 rooms in the nicest hotel in Agra. I took you girls without Dad at six o'clock in the morning to the Taj- it was very hot. You guys were running around in your bare feet. Indian families were intrigued by the fact that you were Westerners and twins and Phoebe had blonde hair. We had the place almost to ourselves in Indian terms. We were just enjoying it."

"We traveled a lot in Rajastan including when Oma and Opa came to visit. In India you'd always have these incredible experiences. You always ran the incredible risk of getting food poisoning. You also did a lot of horseback riding. This was a more organized and professional horseback riding outfit compared to Pakistan. You guys were old enough to wear red cowboy boots. You were still riding retired polo ponies. And you would gallop! You'd trot and gallop you were quite accomplished. If you remember at the horseback riding place they had a place set up with chairs where you'd sit and drink tea. You'd get tea with water buffalo milk. It was delicious. They had a pin of rabbits and you would look at the rabbits and play with them. It was lovely."

Snapshot- Petra, Jordan

Throughout this blog I'll include "snapshots" of different places that do not make sense chronologically.  I'll try to back the picture up with a brief story. Here's my first snapshot- this is of my twin sister Helen riding a donkey in Petra. The tale behind this picture is quite amusing. After taking a boat from Egypt across the Red Sea to Amman, Jordan my family bused out to this famous wonder of the world. Helen and I spent the whole day looking at beautiful dwellings and ancient hints of civilization. We decided to pay a local vendor to give us a donkey ride back. The local vendor sat us both on the donkey and then planted his body on it as well. The poor animal was carrying way too much for its weight. Helen and I took off at a brisk pace- far too brisk for a steady ride back to the bus. Turns out the vendor seemed to be pulling us away from the bus destination- was donkeyman using us as fodder for human trafficking? We were terrified beyond belief. Got off that poor donkey as soon as possible and trekked the rest by foot.

Helen- about 13 years old

Inca Trail Plans SQUASHED

The title says it all- our plans to hike the original Inca Trail are SQUASHED. Permits have been sold out until August 15. By then, we'll almost be returning to college. What now? What happened to accomplishing the holy grail of world trekking? After taking the stress out by snow shoveling I returned to Google and found the 6 best alternative routes to hiking to Machu Picchu on National Geographic. Turns out the 5 day/4 night Salkantay Trek takes you through snow capped Andes, past hot springs, and through waterfalls that are the product of a cross section between Atlantic and Amazonian currents.  And it's a difficult endeavor- I wouldn't want to pay close to 600 bucks to just breeze through miles of high altitude walking.

At first I thought there was no way this summer could be consummated without the traditional trail, but now I'm starting to have second thoughts. First off, the traditional trail is crowded beyond belief compared to the Salkantay. Secondly, I'm not a big fans of ruins, and neither are the alternative treks. Thirdly, the Salkantay seems much more beautiful. So there's that.

snow-capped Andes on the Salkantay

Hiking the Inca Trail

I took this blog post from my other (political) blog called Inside the Beltway. 


To whomever might read this (and I suspect next to no one) this is not a political post! Time to take a break and talk about other stuff. So my friend (Trevor) and I are gonna hike the Inca Trail (hopefully with another student from Columbia) in late July- early August. Exciting stuff! 145 days until we set foot to Machu Picchu.

Here's a picture of the glorious Incan mountain-city:

Basically, anyone who wants to successfully complete the 26-mile hike needs to acclimate first in Cusco, the ancient Incan capital. We'll be there for three days. The highest point of the Inca Trail stands at 14,000 feet (Dead Women's Pass). The traditional hike lasts 4 days and 3 nights. We'll be experiencing a Peruvian winter in July. Temperatures will drop to 35 degrees Farenheit at night and rise to 70 degrees Farenheit during the day.

All I can do recently is read blog posts and articles on the Inca Trail. It's one of the seven wonders of the world and is a really inspiring feat to accomplish. After perusing through plenty of websites, I've gathered a rough understanding of what will go down:

Day one of the Inca Trail is fairly easy. It's 14 km and mostly flat with the exception of a few uphills. Hikers will see a few snow capped peaks and finally settle down in the town of Ayapata. There, local vendors will sell water and beer (!!!). Time for happy hour.

Day two is grueling. It's considered by many to be the hardest day of the trek. With 16 km to walk, hikers will climb two high passes and ascend 3,000 feet. This is when you become thankful for acclimating in Cusco. Hikers in YouTube videos often fall flat on their faces after completing Dead Women's Pass. I'm expecting this day to be harder than clocking a sub-11 minute two mile.

Some consider day three "relaxing" compared to the previous day's adventure. It's beautiful and a relatively short distance, but hikers are forced to go downhill for a large duration of the trek. This is where walking sticks come in handy. At the end of the day your knees will be begging for rest. But day three is aesthetically pleasing. You'll go through jungles with hummingbirds and other interesting animals. Sounds good to me.

Finally, day four involves an early morning wake up (read: 3am) to depart for the Sun Gate, which was the Inca's entrance to Machu Picchu. Headlamps will be useful to navigate the dark trails. Upon arrival at the Sun Gate hikers take pictures, admire the consummation of a grueling trip, and then embark on a 2 hour tour of the ancient city. I expect to be surprised and jealous of tourists who skipped the hike and took a train to Machu Picchu. Our hygiene levels will pale in comparison to theirs.

So there it is! A brief summary of the trek. I'll write more blog posts on this Peruvian wonder to cure my boredom.

Islamabad, Pakistan

After two years of living in Saudi we relocated to neighboring Pakistan. Back then, Pakistan wasn't an Al-Qaeda infested war zone. I ironically remember Islamabad being a peaceful and clean city- cleaner and more tranquil than Delhi or Moscow. After one year of living in Islamabad my mom had to evacuate with my two sisters and I back to D.C. due to bomb threats. We stayed in D.C. for 5 months until the threats became less intense, then joined our Dad back in Pakistan for 18 more months. Here are my parents' accounts of the place (I only remember driving to the embassy, being perplexed at how clean and simple a city Islamabad was. Seems kind of paradoxical now.)

a map of the Middle East

Dad:

"During the three years that we lived in Pakistan we travelled a lot as a family and I travelled frequently for my work as a consular officer all over the country. One of the most interesting trips I took in the summer of 2000 was a 10 day trek along the Battura glacier. As a family we went to Peshawar several times and then from Peshawar we took the steam train up the Khyber Pass and on one occasion got up to Michni Point which looked down on the border with Afghanistan. Another interesting trip I took was down in the far southeast corner of Pakistan near the Indian border to a town called Omarkot. There was a substantial Hindu presence there in an otherwise muslim country."

a painting of the Khyber Pass

Mom:

"We were fortunate to have a cook in the house who we wanted to cook Pakistani food and so the girls grew up eating dahl, japatis, and various curried meats. We lived in sector G7, not far from the diplomatic enclave where the British embassy and French school were located. We had three bunnies called no-name, bush-bush, and speedy. We had many people helping us in the house- a cook, a guard, a nanny, a laundry person, gardener, indoor cleaner, and outdoor cleaner."

Islamabad- the grid city

"Islamabad was sort of a sleepy place- a government town with the roads laid out on grids. The city was built up against the Margala hills. Islamabad is completely different from its sister city Rawalpindi located about 10-15 miles away. While Islamabad was quiet Rawalpindi was chaotic, had narrow streets, choked traffic, and was more of the "real Pakistan". Your life in Pakistan revolved between the house, French school, and playing areas in the U.S. Embassy, and finally, horseback riding. "

Rawalpindi

"We would drive a few days a week to horseback riding area an hour away from the city to ride horses on retired polo ponies in a stable that was operated by a retired General. We ate mostly inside because we couldn't trust the food outside. We would throw huge parties to accommodate more than 50 people with large shamayani tents. You didn't see that many women in public in the streets, it was an incredibly traditional society where homes in the Old City would have separate male and female sections."

"There was a restaurant that was run by an artist we knew; his family had been prostitutes. He became a famous artist and decorated his house with paintings of prostitutes. He found beautiful pieces of wood and ran a restaurant in which you'd show up and order food. They didn't actually cook at this restaurant but went around town and bought off places of the street. You'd eat in this big room decorated with famous art. It was fun."

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

One year after my twin sister Helen and I were born in Georgetown we moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We spent two years in Riyadh- two years that have totally slipped my mind, which is why I got my mom to recount our time spent there:

"We lived 100 yards from the US Embassy on the Diplomatic Quarter where most of the diplomatic missions were located. The Diplomatic Quarter was located above a wadi, which means "valley" in Arabic- it was very attractive with trails and parks and palm trees. It was open to the Saudi public- most days families would picnic there, which often created culture clashes between the local Wahhabi muslims and more secular expatriots. For instance, when Kurt went running in his spandex outfit he would sometimes be stoned by small Saudi children who considered his clothing inappropriate. At the same time, even though it was a diplomatic enclave, as a woman I was prohibited from driving and had to obey the social mores of the country, which meant that I had to dress conservatively or if I didn't want to dress conservatively I had to put on abaya, which was a black cloak that would cover my body, and which all Saudi women wore when they were outside of the house. Because Saudi Arabia is a desert country I found the black polyester abaya to be particularly uncomfortable and instead preferred to dress in very conservative bag lady like clothes.Oftentimes we couldn't do activities as a family like we could in America. The zoo for instance had visiting hours for women and children and separate visiting hours for men. The same thing happened with swimming pools."

U.S. Embassy, Riyadh

"We ate well in Saudi Arabia. The standard "Saudi food" was actually Lebanese food- hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, lamb, and kibbeh. There are also more than a million Yemenese working in Saudi Arabia. We would go to food stalls (Kurt would) and pick up chicken in a bag, which was a greasy paper bag filled with saffron cooked rice and a broasted chicken, which was wonderful and inexpensive! We would also drive downtown and Kurt would stop at the schwarma shops and pick up chicken and beef schwarma sandwiches which were terrific. We would look at the mob of young Saudi men standing in line- you'd almost never see a woman in public in those kinds of settings. If you went to the malls, however, and Saudi Arabia had terrific modern Western malls- there was a different story. There you had the finest European shops, amazing lingerie stores (staffed only by men, go figure...), and Saudi men and presumably groups of unmarried Saudi young ladies would be walking up and down the mall attracting each other's attention while making sure to avoid the unwelcome attention of the Religious Police."

Saudi Religious Police

"The Religious Police were a real problem. Not for us because we had diplomatic ID cards but for all the other expatriots and certainly for the average Saudi, a religious police was a real danger- on the look out for any violation of Saudi custom or law- they were constantly on the hunt for women and men in contact with one another who weren't related. Because in Saudi Arabia women could only be in the presence of a male who was her husband or family member. And the social mores applied to all of the mini millions of non-Muslims from south asia from the phillipines from indonesia and europe who worked in the Kingdom. The first time I was in Saudi Arabia when I was unmarried it was possible for a Western male who was driving me to a reception or to a party and who was not a diplomat himself for the religious police to arrest him and to deport him for violating Saudi law. Even your dad and I on more than one occaion were accosted by religious police and this was before we were married who objected to us having dinner together. While they couldn't arrest us they could threaten the staff at the restaurant or the store and oftentimes we just had to leave."

the Saraha Desert in Saudi Arabia

"But our memories of Saudi Arabia remain terrific. We had great adventures in the desert. We went desert camping with groups of expatriots who wer'e still friends with. We attended desert concerts with hundreds if not thousands of expatriots who would gather in a canyon in the desert to listen to classical music. We took trips around the country. Your dad visited the Nabateyan ruins. He did a car camping trip along the old  Hijaz railway. We explored nearby deserted palaces and towns. We visited the assir region close to yemen where baboons would run around the forest. We went to Dahran and saw the amazing Aramco compound where women were actually allowed to drive. We went to Jiddah and went swimming and snorkeling in the Red Sea. And we met many interesting Saudis along the way. Also, Phoebe was born there!!!! One of several embassy kids who have Riyadh as their birthplace and it was with some regret and fond memories that we picked up and transferred to Pakistan."

my little sister Phoebe (on top)

Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Isabel. I'm a 19 year old college student taking a gap year from Yale University. I created this blog to document my travels around the world. The name "196" refers to how many countries are in the world as of March 3, 2014. I'll first play catch up and try to document where I've already been. As a Foreign Service brat I've travelled a lot with my two parents, twin sister Helen, and little sister Phoebe. Now time for some cliches: traveling has always been and will always be my premier way of learning. I really do believe that immersing yourself in a foreign culture trumps any amount of time spent in the classroom. And let's not forget that it's incredibly fun. Here we go:

My family and grandparents in St. Petersburg, Russia. From left to right: my mom, Alice, my little sister Phoebe, my dad, Kurt, me, my grandma, Oma, my twin sister Helen, and my grandpa, Opa