If you ask me, the key benefit of making yourself freer and more flexible is being able to take advantage of great opportunities when they come up. Less baggage, more options. So I was excited when I discovered (through the serendipity of Facebook) that a friend of mine was about to embark on some extended travel in Southeast Asia leaving her San Francisco apartment vacant.

After a few emails and calls back and forth, and a quick conversation with my boss, it was settled. I would be taking care of things at her place – living and working from her apartment for a little less than a month while she was away!

Let me take a quick step back. About that conversation with my boss…. I was pretty nervous about pitching this idea to him. You never really know how a conversation like this can go, but I’m firmly of the mindset that it can’t hurt to ask. You get out of life what you settle for, but I also knew that I had a pretty friendly audience. He’s been very happy with my work, and we’d recently had an unrelated conversation about how I can do my job from anywhere since I already work from a branch office and not our corporate headquarters. All I really need is a laptop and a cell phone. In the end, the conversation was a non-event. He said yes, and I promptly bought my flight to SFO.

I’ve been contemplating making a move to San Francisco and was itching for a little change of scenery so this has been the perfect opportunity to get an extended stay in the city for far less than a hotel would cost and without having to commit to anything just yet.

I’ve been in San Francisco for almost three weeks now, and I’ve had a blast exploring neighborhoods all over the city – SoMa, The Mission, Hayes Valley, The Marina, Inner Richmond, Outer Richmond, Outer Sunset, North Beach, Russian Hill, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown…

I’ll share more details and plenty of pictures very soon.

Today we’re going to take a little trip… I’ve selected stories from 7 different spots across the globe and put together a ’round the world jaunt just for you. So sit back, fasten your seat belt, and get ready to depart!

# 1 – First, we’ll snake our way down through Central America to the northernmost portion of South America, specifically the mountains of Colombia. Stumptown’s Colombia Source Trip (via Cool Hunting)

After taking my first trip to Colombia at the end of last year, I perk up now whenever I hear something about Colombia, and I’ve been itching to share this video since I stumbled on it… If you’ve heard of Portland’s Stumptown Coffee, you know that they take their coffee pretty seriously. I had no idea how seriously. This is a great video about their trip to Colombia to source their coffee. It reminds me so much of driving in the mountains around Medellin and makes me wish I’d taken time to visit a coffee finca (farm) while I was there.

#2 – We will continue MUCH further south past Ecuador and Peru, down the long coast of Chile, past the southernmost city in the world, (Ushuaia, Argentina), and across the turbulent Drake Passage to Antarctica. Dr. Edward Atkinson in his Antarctic Lab (via the Art of Manliness Trunk)

Check out this amazing photo of the Royal naval surgeon and Antarctic explorer from the National Geographic archives and follow the Wikipedia links to read about the Terra Nova Expedition from 1910 to 1913.

#3 – Next, we head back to warmer climates and across the Atlantic Ocean to the southeastern edge of Europe, in the Balkans. we’ll stop in the country that’s bordered by Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia. Stumped? It’s Albania, of course. Riding a mini bus in Albania, by Lauren Quinn (via Matador Network)

Here’s a short excerpt:

“On a map, Gjirokaster is only 230km from Tirana. In any other European country, you’d walk to the train station at the center of town, sip an espresso while you waited for your train, hand a grumpy conductor your ticket, and gently rock your way back to the capital in a couple of hours … But this is Albania. And it’s not just the abandoned bunkers and minaret towers that make the country so utterly unlike the rest of Eastern or Western Europe. It’s the only European country without a functional rail system. And the buses don’t do a rousing job of making up for it. Fifty years of dictatorship and a civil war left infrastructure woefully dilapidated. Roads have begun to be repaired, but the things that ride on them have yet to improve.”

Good to know. When heading to Albania, try to rent a car … somewhere? Anywhere.

#4 – Heading east from Albania across the Mediterranean Sea, past divided Cyprus, across Syria and the Kurdish regions of Iraq, we’ll stop in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Traveling to Iran as Americans: All You Need to Know (by Uncornered Market)

I’ve been following Dan and Audrey’s adventures recently as they traveled through Iran. I was hugely curious about their trip and what Iran is really like outside of all the stereotypes and mass media reports. This post answers a lot of practical questions about traveling to Iran as an American. Is it legal? Can you travel on your own in Iran? How do you get a visa since there’s no Iranian embassy in the US? Can you use an ATM or your credit card in Iran?

“Iranian banks are also subject to international sanctions. So although Iran is full of banks and ATM machines, you won’t be able to get money out at any of them with your ATM card. So cash is the name of the game.”

Bonus links: Find out more about why they went to Iran and see some photos of Western Iran to satisfy your curiosity about what Iran really looks like!

#5 – Our next stop is over the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan on the subcontinent of India, in the eighth largest metropolis in the world, Dehli. Indian Maharaja’s daring act of anti-colonial dissent (by BBC News Asia)

Dehli is preparing to celebrate 100 years as the capital of India, and apparently the recent discovery of a “lost written diary by an Anglo-Irish aristocrat” named Lilah Wingfield has reminded the world of a forgotten act of defiance at the Dehli Durbar of 1911.

“Each Indian ruler or “native prince” was expected to perform proper obeisance to the King-Emperor by bowing three times before him, then backing away without turning. The maharajah not only ignored royal etiquette by turning his back on the king and queen after formally introducing himself but compounded his perceived insolence by reportedly “laughing disrespectfully” as he departed from their presence.”

#6 – From India, we’ll wander only slightly further east… We’re staying in south Asia and heading to the highly visited, travel blogger favorite of Thailand. The Hilarious and Strange Thai-Cambodian Border (by Christine Gilbert on AlmostFearless.com)

I’ve been a pretty regular reader of Christine’s blog for a while now. I enjoy seeing how she and her husband travel the world with their two year old son Cole, but what really keeps me coming back is her sarcastic sense of humor and honesty about long term travel and the places they visit. Check out the full story to avoid a long standing scam on your next border crossing from Thailand to Cambodia.

Here’s a short excerpt:

“It’s like some kind of compartmentalization that you achieve, especially in Southeast Asia, where you learn to not take these kinds of things personally, and maybe you think, “well that’s a scam for tourists who don’t know better, not for me”.  You still have to do business with the people who initially try to rip you off.  So you get used to it.  It’s like their opening bid.  Can I rip you off?  No?  Okay, what else can I do for you?”

#7 – And our last stop brings us much closer to home. Northern California, in fact. Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park (found on Pinterest via Evan Sharp)

I had to show the picture below because it’s so beautiful, and here’s the description Evan gave this pin: Horsetail Fall is a small, ephemeral waterfall that flows over the eastern edge of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. For two weeks in February, the setting sun striking the waterfall creates a deep orange glow that resembles Yosemite’s historic “Firefall.”

The post above from todayandtomorrow.net also includes as short video as well.

Clearly, we left large swaths of the world untouched on this trip, but I hope you agree that these seven spots provided some pretty interesting stories, and I hope you enjoyed the trip!

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Photo: from Curious Expeditions on Flickr

I’ve been struggling with how to tell you about my recent trip to Cairo, which is funny since my friends and family can attest that I’ve hardly stopped talking about Egypt since returning, especially with the return to Tahrir and elections. Even in talking about it though, I’m not sure I’ve done it justice.

The thrill of experiencing an entirely new culture firsthand would have made the trip memorable enough, but pair that with getting the opportunity to meet and talk with some very accomplished and passionate people who are in the thick of defining real political change in their country and seeing the iconic pyramids, and it quickly became one of the best trips I’ve taken to date.

It was humbling and eye-opening, and I wanted this post to convey all of that. Rather than delay it any longer, I’ll just let the trip speak for itself and then you can see everything that made my five days in Cairo so special.

DAY ONE

Zamalek

We stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Zamalek, which is an affluent neighborhood that sits on an island in the middle of the Nile, separating Cairo and Giza, both of which make up the metropolitan city of Cairo. As you might remember, I came to Cairo to participate in Afar Experiences’ inaugural event. Since it didn’t begin until midday on my first day in Cairo, I ventured out to explore a little of the surrounding area on my own.

I set off in search of the Diwan Bookstore. It’s well known for carrying titles in English that are hard to find in the US, and it didn’t disappoint. I ended up carrying home two books – one titled Road to Tahrir containing photos taken by young Egyptian photographers of the January revolution that ousted Mubarak and the other titled What the Arabs Think of Americans.

Then I climbed the Cairo Tower to take in the 360 degree view of this massive city with its population of approximately 18 million people.

Overlooking downtown Cairo.

The southern tip of Zamalek.

You can actually see a faint outline of the pyramids from the top of the tower when overlooking the Giza side, but sadly because of the haze you can barely see them in the picture above. There will be more pictures of pyramids soon enough!

Manshiet Nasser

After spending my morning in affluent Zamalek, I met up with the Afar group for our first activity and ventured much further afield. I selected a tour of Manshiet Nasser, one of the largest slums in Cairo. Our tour guide was Jawad Nabulsi, a young entrepreneur and Tahrir revolutionary whose Nebny Foundation is working with local contractors to help revitalize the neighborhood, which has been largely neglected by the government, before and after the revolution. It sits in stark contrast to the leafy Zamalek. We walked through only the small part of Manshiet Nasser that was involved in the revitalization efforts, and one of the nicest blocks in the area.

People gathered and welcomed us as we made our way with Jawad through the streets of their neighborhood. As we were getting ready to leave, an older woman motioned to us from one of the windows you see above and invited a few of us to come up into her home. We were able to talk with her and her family about the work the foundation was doing and about the fall of Mubarak. It was an unexpected glimpse into their daily lives.

DAY TWO

The Egyptian Museum

We woke early to visit the Egyptian Museum before it opened. We broke up into groups of four. Each of which was paired with an egyptologist who deftly led us through the never ending halls of the museum and all the ancient treasures to show us just the highlights.

Walking through the museum felt like traveling back in time, not just because of the age of the artifacts, but also because the display cases and the building evoke the British colonial period of Egypt’s history at the turn of the century when the building in Tahrir Square was built. The mummy room near containing the mummies of about 9 ancient pharaohs was definitely a highlight of the tour, albeit a slightly creepy one. It’s hard to believe you’re really looking at ancient kings and one queen.

A Remnant of the Revolution

Another highlight of the visit to the Egyptian Museum was the opportunity to see up close the burned out headquarters of the National Democratic Party – the ruling party under Mubarak.

It was burned during the revolution and still stands empty now.  The building backs right up to the museum, and you can see how devastating the fire could have been if it had gotten out of control.

Tahrir Square

From the museum, we walked to Tahrir Square. As you can see below, in late October it was a bustling mess of traffic, and back to business as usual after the January revolution. Having seen this spot made the news come alive in a way I haven’t experienced when only about three weeks later people gathered again in Tahrir to protest the military’s efforts to maintain political control and protections under the post-revolution government and when reports and photographs showed people being injured, tear gassed, or killed during those protests.

The day also included speakers at Cafe Riche, lunch at Arabesque, a reception at the Marriott with opening remarks from the Minister of Tourism, and dinner at Abou El Sid.

DAY THREE

We began the day with a walking tour through the Coptic Christian cemetery to the church of St. Barbara.

We met with Father Sarabamone, a Coptic priest who told us about his church and answered most of our questions. On the heels of Coptic Christians being killed during protests in Cairo, he effectively sidestepped political questions about discrimination or persecution, but admitted that times are tough. Copts represent only 10% of the population in Egypt.

Next we found our way through Cairo’s traffic to the Sultan Hassan Mosque and Madrasa to meet with a young, modern imam named Moez Masoud. I’ve written a little more about him and his unique perspective on Islam here on Afar.com.

Outside Sultan Hassan

Inside Sultan Hassan

After returning from the mosque, our afternoon speakers included filmmaker Mohamed Diab and economist Seif Fahmy. Both were outstanding. Mohamed Diab is a longtime screenwriter who recently produced and directed his first film, Cairo 6, 7, 8 about sexual harassment in Egypt. Seif Fahmy spent years in business and in politics at one time within Mubarak’s National Democractic Party before resigning en masse with other ministers when it became apparent that they couldn’t accomplish within the NDP what they’d hoped to accomplish. His perspective was interesting and invaluable.

Home Dinners

We concluded the evening with dinners in various Egyptian’s homes to get another opportunity to speak informally and to get to know Egyptians around their kitchen tables and outside of the tour bus. My dinner was at the home of Sherif Maklouf a young entrepreneur in the technology space. We’ve taken to calling it the young revolutionaries dinner…. He and many of his friends who joined us were in Tahrir, involved in the protests, and are actively helping to change the political future of Egypt. It was like political theory 101. Maybe it was more like an advanced political theory course actually, because the issues they’re grappling with are complex with no easy or simple answers for bringing Egypt through this transition. I left that evening being genuinely impressed with the passion, commitment and intelligence of those individuals helping and hoping to direct Egypt’s future.

DAY FOUR

The day started with a brief overview of Egyptian architecture – all four thousand years of it! We gathered at La Bodega to hear architect Tarik Labib introduce the highlights and show us pictures of his buildings as well. Then we headed to the El Sawy Culturewheel for a few activities over the course of the afternoon. We heard traditional Egyptian musicians perform, listened to Riham Bahi a women’s rights activist and professor of political science about the issues facing women in Egypt, and met Bassem Youssef a comedian, surgeon, and talk show host, who is also called the Egyptian Jon Stewart.

Me and Riham Bahi

Bassem Youssef

Since I didn’t taken any pictures of Bassem Youssef in Cairo, I decided to include the one above. When author and journal Robin Wright spoke recently in Dallas, she showed a picture of him during her slideshow as an example of the changes the Arab world is facing in the area of humor. He’s a YouTube sensation who now has his own television show doing political comedy.

Farewell Party at the Pyramids

After a quick shopping trip around Zamalek to secure a few souvenirs (bath salts from the Red Sea), it was time to board the bus to the farewell party overlooking the Pyramids.We arrived right before sunset to see our beautiful tent for the evening full of colorful rugs, a traditional Bedouin band, and amazing food.

There were also quite a few camels and their handlers waiting to give the tourists a quick ride around the tent.

It was an amazing end to a thrilling event, and I’m looking forward to hearing in January where the next Afar Experience will be.

DAY FIVE

On my final day in Cairo, I joined a few of the others from the group and returned to Giza to see the pyramids during the day – to climb down inside the smaller pyramid, see the famous Sphinx, and visit the boat built with no nails.

Contraband photo from inside the Pyramid. Climbing back out.

Having already seen the pyramids the night before, I’d questioned whether it would be worth the return trip to Giza, but in the light of day, they did not disappoint.

After taking in the sights, we visited the historic Mena House hotel (owned by the Indian Oberoi group). The hotel has hosted many celebrities, but it also served as a meeting place for Winston Churchill and General Montgomery as they made plans during World War II and was the site of the talks between Egypt and Israel in the 70s. We reveled in the opulent surroundings and views of the pyramids and ate an amazing Indian lunch in The Moghul Room.

The last thing we all wanted to be sure to see before leaving Cairo was the Khan al-Khalili souk so we went straight from Giza through all the evening traffic to the souk. We arrived just before sundown and finished a full day with a walk through the winding alleys. You can see pictures and more about the souk in my last post.

While it’s hard to believe that I only spent five days in Cairo, they were five very full days that gave me a greater understanding of Egypt and laid the ground work for a better understanding of the region in general.

Having heard that Khan el-Khalili, a major souk in Islamic Cairo, was particularly pretty to see in the evening, we decided to make the trek across town to see it as we were leaving Giza after a long day of touring the pyramids. I was very glad to be with companions for the visit to the souk, including the men who accompanied us, instead of being on my own.

Nothing I’ve experienced in the US really compares to the feeling of being a foreigner without agenda or direction in the midst of Khan el-Khalili. It was packed. People seemed to be everywhere – cutting through the alleys on their way home, picking up spices or other necessary item, or pushing a packed trolley through an impossibly small space already full of people.The closest thing I can imagine is trying to navigate your way (for the first time) through the NYC subway system via Grand Central at the height of rush hour with a suitcase!

At one point as we wandered away from the more touristy portion of the souk, we were practically sandwiched between people seemingly commuting through the souk while we were at the same time still fielding requests to shop from the salesmen lining the souk. They continually assured us that “They had exactly what we needed.” Whatever that might be.

There were a few moments of relative calm during our walk through the souk, and the pictures below are mostly from those moments.

Sugar cane.

 Fresh dates for sale.

Alabaster jars and sheesha water pipes (a.k.a. hookah).

Loofahs and fabric.

Clothing piled and hung high.

Milling about outside the souk.

As you can see, the area was packed. This was Friday night traffic in downtown Cairo. It’s clearly the time to be out and about in the city. Since Cairenes don’t work on Fridays, it’s much like a Saturday night out in the States.

More thoughts on Egypt to come.

In a little more than 24 hours, I’ll be headed to Egypt! Cairo specifically, via London.

There will be plenty of big firsts on this trip – my first Muslim country, my first spot in Africa and the Middle East, and my first group tour ever. The event (sounds better than tour!) is hosted by Afar Media, publisher of Afar travel magazine.

Our itinerary includes convening in Cairo for a few days of dinner in Egyptian homes, conversations with revolutionaries about the future of Egypt,  sunset at the Pyramids, early morning access to the Egyptian Museum, and a visit to Tahrir Square…

And if that’s not enough, I’m also excited to spend a couple of days in London revisiting a few of my favorite touristy spots (Covent Garden, Regent’s Park, the British Museum) and exploring plenty of new spots too (Borough Market and the East End)…

I can’t wrap my head around the fact that it’s been over a decade since I spent a summer in London during college, but I’m definitely looking forward to making up for lost time!

I’d better get back to work now, since there’s still tons to do before I board the plane! But I’ll be posting plenty of stories and pictures (with my first manual camera!) over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

There were so many things I enjoyed about my visit to Portland earlier this summer… The laid-back, easy feel of the city along with the great, inexpensive food options lured me in hook, line, and sinker.  After 5 days, I wasn’t ready to leave, and I resolved to return to Portland. Hopefully, again and again.

The one thing that I still think about after having returned home was an amazing walk I took, twice. Some might call it a hike, but it’s not particularly strenuous.

First, we took the MAX train to the Zoo in Washington Park and from there followed the signs to the Hoyt Arboretum. As you embark on the path through the woods, away from the Arboretum, it is truly possible to feel a million miles away from the city, surrounded only by old growth Douglas Fir trees and moss covered stones. The temperature drops in the midst the trees and with it went any residual stress I was still carrying around.

As you can see above, about half of the walk is through the park, past the Japanese Garden and the International Rose Test Garden, but the other half is through the restaurants and boutiques of northwest Portland.

The best thing about this walk is how you spill out into the thick of the city after walking for an hour or so alone in the trees. The views are beautiful as you walk out through the park. I was so enthralled that I only took the one picture above. If you look closely, you can see the outline of the city in the center background.

After working up an appetite, we shuffled through the streets of northwest Portland, ate lunch, and eventually made our way to Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a Portland institution, in the ACE Hotel for a cold brew iced coffee. It seemed a highly appropriate way to end our afternoon wandering and to caffeinate before seeking out the rest of what Portland has to offer.

Here’s a link to the walking directions, if you’d like to retrace my steps yourself.

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Bookmark for Future Use: Best U.S. Hiking Cities, Easy Urban Escapes by National Geographic – “With wild hikes within an hour, these 15 cities have some of the best outdoor access in urban America—and the only prerequisite for exploring is a pair of sneakers. Plus, find out where to eat and drink like a local afterward.” Including Portland, SF, NYC, Chicago, and eleven others…

After recently trying to keep a bottle of white wine cold in a New York City hotel room, only to have it repeatedly removed from the mini fridge by the housekeeping staff, I can actually relate to Umberto Eco’s problem of traveling with a perishable salmon in How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays.

Eco bought a smoked salmon in Stockholm, but had to travel on to London before heading home to Italy. This battle to keep the salmon cold in the hotel room’s fridge admist a huge amount of gourmet goodies, which he removed and emptied into a dresser drawer, went on back and forth for a couple of days…

“The next day at 4 p.m., the salmon was back on the desk, and it was emanating a suspect odor. The bar was crammed with bottles large and small, and the four drawers of the dresser suggested the back room of a speakeasy at the height of Prohibition.”

“The next morning I went down to sign the bill. It was astronomical. It indicated that in two and a half days I had consumer several hectoliters of Veuve Clicquot, ten liters of various whiskeys, including some very rare single malts, eight liters of gin, twenty-five liters of mineral water (both Perrier and Evian, plus some bottles of San Pellegrino), [and] enough fruit juice to protect from scurvy all of the children in UNICEF’s care…”

All to no avail since the salmon quickly became inedible. Alas.

How about you… Any funny travel stories to share? When traveling with unique limitations?

Probably not as unique as a salmon.

After graduating from law school and before returning home to Texas, I drove north on Highway 95 from Washington, DC to NYC with my sister. At first the mood in the car was pensive and even a little sad as I left DC and the life I’d loved to return to Dallas. But we moved northward through the thick traffic on 95, and our moods lightened. We were headed for a little fun in NYC before the reality of studying for the bar exam and finding a job set in.

Intrigued & On Edge

I’m not a particularly fearful person, but I do have one big fear. The depths of any big body of water. Not the deep end of the pool, but pretty much everything else. The murky otherworldliness of the oceans and their creatures are a huge part of that fear for me. As a kid, I would cautiously turn only part of the page of a new National Geographic so as not to be too surprised by any crazy, glowing, freaky fish lurking unannounced inside its pages. My first and only experience of snorkeling in a large cove over a shipwrecked ferry was both awesome and scary as hell all at once.

Because of this fear, I’ve always been a little unnerved and oddly fascinated by the tunnels around NYC. I’d visited the city plenty of times before and speed through the tunnels in taxis to and from the airport. But this time is was just the two of us, and I was driving. Why that made a difference, I’m not sure. Maybe it was because we arrived right around rush hour and because the traffic moved so slowly.

As we queued up to enter the tunnel, we talked about how crazy it was to think that the waters of the Hudson were swirling above us and about the heightened security that was in place because of 9/11, but as we inched through traffic taking forever to get through the tunnel, we fell silent.

Finally, we both breathed a little as we reached that spot in the middle of the tunnel where the it begins to incline slowly instead of declining, and I remember sighing in relief as we saw the light peeking through the Manhattan side of the tunnel. Only recently did I become aware of the importance of that specific spot in the history of the tunnel, and the high price it exacted from Clifford Milburn Holland, the chief engineer during much of its construction.

Gone to New York

Before my trip to NYC last month, I picked up a secondhand copy of Gone to New York: Adventures in the City, a great compilation of stories about the city by travel writer Ian Frazier. The story titled ‘Canal Street’ began slowly, but then sucked me in as the essay followed the street westward spilling directly into the Holland Tunnel and its history.

According to Frazier, “[p]eople have written scores of books on the Brooklyn Bridge and its engineers, the Roeblings; the only book on the Holland Tunnel is a sixty-eight-page volume put out by the company that built the tunnel’s ventilating fans.”

I’d often wondered how the tunnel was actually built. How did it impact the workers? And, who does that kind of work anyways? No need to wonder anymore; Frazier had all the answers.

Betting on the Tunnel

The tunnel was built using the shield method of tunnel construction. It “uses a steel-plate cylinder, or shield, which is driven into the earth by powerful jacks at its back edge while men remove the rock and the dirt in the middle. As the shield advances, a tunnel wall of iron rings is set in place behind.”

They started from each side with the intent of meeting in the middle… The New Jersey side took forever to get started, but ended up moving fast. The New York side was slow going the whole way through. It had to make it’s way through landfill, silt, and a wall of hard rock, Manhattan schist.

The real unknown was whether the tunnels would meet when the time came for “holing” through. At that specific spot.

Everything depended on the accuracy of their calculations and the margin of error that Holland had hoped for was less than an inch. Ultimately the pressure and the conditions were too much for Holland, and he died of a heart attack before discovering that the two tunnels only diverged from each other by only three-quarters of an inch. Exactly as he’d hoped.

Paying a High Price

The tunnel also exacted a huge price from the workers, who were called sandhogs.

“Working in pressurized air is enervating, and the sandhog’s union would not allow shifts of more than four hours; as the pressure went up, the shifts became shorter and the pay greater… Under the river, beneath bare lightbulbs in the advancing shields, with the smoke of blasting hanging permanently in the gloom, and the racket of pneumatic grouting machines echoing off metal walls, the sandhogs picked and shoveled at the slaty gray bedrock.”

Apparently, there are also big health risks, including death, when ascending too rapidly from the depths of the tunnel. Facing those risks and being a sandhog also ran in the family. Many had multiple generations represented on the project. It definitely takes a fearless, unique sort of person to do that work.

Sadly, these days Holland’s sacrifice is hardly remembered. Tunneling is by definition the type of activity that runs below the radar, unlike building bridges and skyscrappers, and as Frazier indicates, Holland’s name also conspired to keep him out of the limelight and out of history.

After polling those who live and work around the tunnel everyday, Frazier reported that virtually no one knew why it was named the Holland Tunnel. Plenty thought it was named after the Dutch, but only a Japanese tourist knew that the tunnel was named for the engineer who built it. Now you know too.

While there is a bust of Holland near the westbound entrance, which includes his name, having passed by it myself as a tourist without noticing, I imagine it lost in full view in the midst of the hustle of the city.

The tunnel was opened on November 13, 1927 at one minute after midnight.

Canal Street, by Ian Frazier, which was originally printed in the New Yorker, April 30, 1990.

Entering the mall “[Gopal] saw that it was a huge double-storeyed building with soft music piped everywhere, discreet lighting throwing an actually welcoming glow, rows of shops, some simply decorated, some bizarre, others with exquisite window dressing. Overhead in the center of the roof was a transparent glass sheet and below it, a restaurant surrounded by green plants. A waterfall cascaded as one end, but so soothingly that Gopal wondered if the water wasn’t domesticated.”

“Walking through the tinkling silence [of the mall], Gopal contrasted it with the bazaars at home. There was a constant roar, like a torrent tearing out of a gorge – no tame water there. Pedlars shrieked, buyers screamed in horror at the prices, shopkeepers wailed at the ruination facing them if they lowered their rates any further. Goods spilled everywhere, fruits, clothes, vegetables, books, fish, and the odours were so strong they were almost tangible, they felt as loud as the sounds.”

The Inscrutable Americans, by Anurag Mathur

The large cities of India now have their own malls. Bangalore has more than one. I didn’t spend any time in a mall in India and only saw them (with their McDonald’s and KFC) from a passing car window. I can’t speak to how similar or different they are, but I think it’s interesting to hear the contrasting descriptions of the traditional shopping experience in the US and India.

My experience at the market in Mumbai, seen in these pictures, wasn’t quite the scene described by the book, but it’s an easy to imagine.

These excerpts are from The Inscrutable Americans, by Anurag Mathur, the story of an innocent, small-town Indian man’s time spent in the US for graduate school and education in American culture. It’s inspired by the author’s own time spent studying at the University of Tulsa.

I picked the book up in the airport in Bangalore for 95 Rs (approx $2.11) to read on the flight home. After experiencing India myself, it was perfect and eye opening to read this account of American culture by an Indian, albeit a fictional account. While it helps to imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes, in the case of other cultures, sometimes one needs a guide. This story was just that.

While watching a local TV channel one evening in Bangalore, I saw an ad for Community Match, an online dating website. The ad opens with a mother and father bemoaning the fact that their son wasn’t married and how hard it was to find the right match for him. Then, a man approaches them and suggests that they try Community Match. At first they’re reluctant, but of course they’re convinced ultimately.

Many Paths to Love

The path to love Indian style is very different from the American path, and the Community Match ad I saw seemed to encapsulate the many differences. Most Americans are intrigued by the concept of an Indian arranged marriage because they sound so different to Americans from the love lore we’ve grown up hearing. I was surprised by some of the conversations I had in India about the tradition.

I spoke with a couple of men who had opted out and proposed to a woman they’d met and fallen for despite differences in caste and geography – called “love” marriages. Others I spoke with had been married into the traditional arrangement. And, I even met a few bachelors whose families were still in the process of finding an appropriate match for them. Hearing them talk about the process of finding the right match made me feel like I had it easy. Everyone in the family has to agree. If someone in the family – including the extended family – didn’t like a particular woman, then she’s out. Naively I asked what happened if he had already developed feelings for the woman or if he just liked her more than the other candidates. It doesn’t matter was the answer.

Modern Love?

It was eye opening to hear more about this tradition and see how people think differently about marital love. My recent Valentine’s Day post, A Little Bit About Modern Love, got a few comments here and on Facebook and a couple of emails. One of these comments got me thinking.

Here’s it is:

“I was struck by the term ‘modern love’ though – do you think love itself is different in the modern world, or simply how we express it and organize relationships? Obviously the various institutions have been very different in the past, and the connectivity that we all enjoy affords way more opportunities to find relationships than those who lived in the past (grow up in a small village with no car and how many people are you going to meet?). But has “love” itself changed you think?”

Hmm. Good question.

My first reaction was yes, I did think that love itself had changed. I thought of a time in US history, not that long ago, when women were still considered chattel and regularly forced into marriage, as they still are in much of the world. Particularly I thought of the kind of marriage that started that way, but turned into something different over many years and through life’s trials and celebrations. The kind of marriage where real love develops. Instinctually, I felt like this kind of love had to be different than a love entered into freely and maturely.

I have a hard time reconciling the kind of love that develops out of the partnership I seek and the love that develops in time, despite a lack of choice. Admittedly, this view is peppered with my personal bias – that of an educated American professional woman.

On the other hand, maybe love itself hasn’t changed. As I thought more about India and arranged marriages, I realized that I thought differently about them, especially the arranged marriages of the educated, professional people I had met. I don’t assume that they couldn’t develop the same type of love simply because they started differently than American marriages.

So, maybe I’m just confusing the different types of love that could occur, in varying degrees and proportions, among spouses.

In his Valentine’s Day post, Charlie Gilke wrote about the different types of love, and it’s definitely worth a read. Here’s a excerpt from the post, Which Type of Love Are You Cultivating?.

“Today is Valentine’s Day and many of us are thinking about love. Unfortunately for us, we’re trying to separate the many different meanings of love at the same time, for many modern languages only have one word whose context determines the appropriate meaning.”

“The Greeks were better off in this regard, for they had at least four words to describe different types of love. They had:

1. Storge (Affection)- the love a parent has for a child or a sibling to another sibling
2. Philia (Friendship) – the way we love our true friends
3. Eros (Sexual love) – the way we love our lovers
4. Agape (Selfless love) – unattached, pure, and compassionate love. In the Christian tradition, this is the type of love God has for his children, but many other religious share this concept but have a different word for it.”

Maybe the the composition of marital love is different when two people enter into the relationship on equal footing? Less dutiful storge and more philia and agape?

Hopefully, in addition to plenty of eros.

What do you think?

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Photo: wedding decorations in Udaipur

More Info: Matchmaking Indian-Style from Fortune.