Afiq arrived in his van the next morning to take us to the jungle. Afiq is an earnest young man who was born in a village alongside the Kinabatangan River. He is affable, but intense about his job as a jungle guide. Once he and his father caught malaria on a hunting trip because …
Borneo: How to Earn a Nap
We flew from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, an easy on twenty-minute Royal Brunei Airlines flight, half-full of serene passengers enjoying their free newspaper and plastic cups of apple juice. From the airport we took a “Grab”, which is the Asian equivalent of Uber, downtown to our hotel, a giant pink monstrosity of condos. The …
Borneo: Mysteries
We spent our second night in Brunei in “Sumbling Eco Village” in a tent along a muddy river in the jungle. The “village” was a clump of a few houses next to a quiet road populated mainly by silent men in soccer jerseys and a bunch of roosters, some of which were tied …
Borneo: Traveler’s Notes
We flew from Portland to San Francisco to Tokyo to Singapore to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei. During the SFO-Singapore section our seats in the very back row jiggled like water balloons on a trampoline which led to some uncomfortable vomiting, but luckily Japan Airlines supplies plenty of barf bags. Traveler’s note: …
Borneo Trip Blog 2: What IS the point?
Hey look! A new blog. And I'll add photos when I figure out howthefuckhow. The boys and I are going to Borneo with our friends Ben and Ramona. My boys and Ben have been close friends since they met when they were about 4 and they started selling each other their old toys and gadgets. …
Borneo: Heading out
We booked rooms at the La Quinta near the airport the night before we left, not because our first flight was particularly early, but because we didn’t want to add any knots to the string of transports that needed to come together to get us all to Borneo. I stress, before we leave for trips. …
Abundance
Banos, Ecuador Monday, January 19, 2015 Maybe the Galapagos would be better off if we all just left it alone. I can't get around the irony of hundreds of thousands of people paying a bunch of money to come to a place that is special because it is "untouched", and then touching it …
Darwin and the Tortoise
Buccaneer's Bay, Galápagos, Ecuador Friday, January 16, 2015 Here we are in the Galapagos. I'd envisioned the Galapagos as a kind of modern day Eden, where giant tortoises and sea lions snuggled on white sand beaches, framed by waving grasses and gently chirping finches. I imagined Darwin twirling among them all-- a bearded …
Keeping Up Appearances
Fernandina, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Tuesday, January 13, 2015 We're on a National Geographic/Sven Linblad boat called the "Islander" cruising through the Galapagos Islands. I would like to see an albatross, though we probably won’t get far enough south. I'm reading a book called "The Lifeboat" in which a Titanic-like boat sinks, leaving …
The Science of Imaginary Lines
Mindo, Ecuador Thursday, January 8, 2015 Our first day in Ecuador, we visited THE CENTER OF THE EARTH! Well, that's what I thought it was, but I was corrected. Pro-tip: When you are in a carload of engineers, even if two of the three of them …
ICEBOX PLUMS: Moments, sweet and cold 