Tag Archives: Childhood

THE TRAVEL DIARY – Phone Home

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Last November, only a few days after my departure, my parents changed our home phone number in an effort to curb a dramatic increase in telemarketers and political call canvassing.  To my knowledge that number had remained the same for my entire life. Ok, fair enough, the area code for our county did change a decade or so back. Still, if you were to call 582-2776, you would no longer find my father’s kind voice asking you to leave a message.

I reflect on this now, because when filling out work-related government forms today, I made a disquieting realization. I haven’t memorized the new number, and if I ever really needed to call home, I couldn’t. I haven’t yet programmed it into my outsourced memory device (read: cellphone/computer), so I’ve been walking around without the most reliable form of immediate contact to the people I love the most.

Naturally, a few moments ago I fired up a web browser and retrieved that email which my Dad sent around six months back, notifying the family of the switch. I am currently reciting the digits.

I’m also struck by the irony that I’m about to join the ranks of those callers who annoy you at dinner to grab five minutes of your time. In its own little way, this points to how all actions in this world are interconnected. Sometimes you’ll never be able to grasp how, but the tether is there.

THE TRAVEL DIARY – A Tired Tidbit

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Hey all!

At about this time, most of you will be waking up, ready to celebrate that most glorious of American holidays, Thanksgiving.

I thought about writing some feel-good sappy post about all the things I have to be thankful for, and how much this trip has helped me to realize what I do have that others do not, but frankly I just spent a full 24 hours traveling from KL to Phuket via night train and three different buses and a seriously overpriced taxi. I am thankful to be happily settled into the loving home of my first couch-surfer host, a delightful french woman named Val, and about to go out for a quick bite before completely collapsing. My first day in Thailand has proven challenging and frustrating, but I hope to wake up to a new side of the place in the morning.

But I will say this – I love you all very much, and am incredibly grateful for your enthusiasm and support.

Eat your cucumbers!

Love,

Doug

5 DAYS TO GO

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A mountain sized reason for undertaking my upcoming journey is to reconnect with the wide-eyed nature loving side of myself. As today’s Photo of the Day represents, I am filled with such inexpressible joy when engaging new natural environments. Well, it’s not completely inexpressible. I can pay tribute to these environments with a camera, and the feeling, expressed verbally, would sound a lot like the wide-open vocals in a song like “A Sort of Homecoming”.

Southeast Asia is naturally known for a huge variety of landscapes and phenomena completely alien to a Long Islander. The beaches of Thailand with their mammoth stone pillars, the coastal reefs of Indonesia, the jungle and vast cave systems of Borneo, all call to me.

They say that diving and snorkeling in the region is like swimming in your very own Planet Earth special. Thus, one of my first goals will be to get an open-water diving certificate. Around $280 gets you certified, including three days of instruction and gear rental. A small price to pay for such enduring memories.

In the forests, new versions of every taxonomy known to humanity wait to be discovered. In some ways this trip began over a year ago when a co-worker sent me an email about a new frog being discovered on Borneo. I read through and thought to myself “I would love to go there!” Now I am. There are extremely rare Bornean Clouded Leopards and Rhinoceros. Forest Elephants, Orangutans, everything I ever wanted to see.

I would love to learn technical rock climbing. I can’t imagine exactly how you begin, but any ability that will open new vistas and dimensions to my life and work must be pursued.

I would love to spend some time sailing around the region. There are so many islands - so many islands - that it seems only appropriate to island hop by sail.

When I was young, one of the greatest things my parents ever did for me was to subscribe to Zoobooks. I would scour these things for hours, and at one point my parents even let me wallpaper an entire half-wall of our basement with full-page images from them. The other half of the wall was a floor to ceiling view of the Earth from the Moon. These were the hands that shaped the clay in my cranium, and I shall be grateful life-long for being introduced to the world in this way.

PHOTO OF THE DAY – In A Tree

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You know, I’m really digging this digital flexibility. I took the D7000 to a local nature trail to try to capture some Autumn foliage. I discovered that I just had to climb this one tree arching out over a pond to get the shot I needed, and so I did. After I took the shot, I noticed someone on the other bank taking photos as well – some photos of me! So I climbed down and wandered over and asked if she’d mind emailing me the photo. So here it is, me in a tree, and the resulting photograph.

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Being up in that tree taking pictures is me at my happiest when I’m by myself. It’s part of how I know I’m working towards the right career.

7 DAYS TO GO

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In one week I leave for Malaysia. My goodness I think I need to write that again.

In one week I leave for Malaysia. For Borneo. For the other side of the world! The scared and isolated 15 year old which has for so long dominated my consciousness will finally grow up to become the wonder-filled 7 year old he has always longed to be. The child who sat in the dirt and stared in amazement at the wonder of a ladybug larvae, and overturned logs and stones to witness the magic in a ground beetle. Who climbed trees because they invited him to. I am going to a region with some of the most tremendous biodiversity on the planet. Hip-hip-hooray! This child will inspect every stone and every bush and tree and look in every puddle and pond and brook and stream. It will hopefully not be bitten by a Russell’s Viper.

The responsible 26 year old is looking at his pack and panicking a bit at the amount of stuff he’s bringing. I’ve read all the recommendations and cautionary notes, but none of it seems dispensable. It’s not really all that heavy, but most of it is terribly valuable. I still intend to do a full gear review video on Wednesday.

SWEET LEMONY NOSTALGIA

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Anyone else get a strange feeling of nostalgia when looking at this?

Maybe it’s just a Long Island thing, and maybe it’s silly (ok it’s silly) but they used to serve Oak Tree stuff to us in elementary school and I’m glad to see its packaging hasn’t changed much in 20 years. It’s great lemonade too.