Vagabonding : 2008 April |

Tibet, Myanmar, and PeaceBookings.com

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About a month ago I was talking to a friend about being in Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand in 2006 and meeting some of the Burmese refugees that had fled the violent Myanmar regime. One of the few that spoke English told me about his buddy, a farmer, that had stepped on a land mine while plowing his field on his own land. It took his leg off, so he approached the government for help.

It turns out, the government actually FINED him for destroying government property (the mine!) and since he had no money, took his farm away from him. He fled the country with nothing, on a wooden leg, to come work on the mountain roads in Thailand.

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Posted in travel | Tags: charity, free tibet, myanmar, tibet, travel

China and NG

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A bridge near Lijiang, China

I used to actually abhor the stack of magazines sitting in my room queued for me to read when I returned home from a trip.

The mountainous pile, composed of freebies, trade journals, and three different flavors of National Geographic (Adventure, Travel, and the original) would sit on my desk for months, quietly outdating, making the transition from enjoyable to burden.

That wasn’t the case with the latest National Geographic, which is completely dedicated to China. The feelings that the photos (especially of Yunnan) give me are indescribable - and the articles are just as pleasing. So many things in this issue have taken me back to my recent 3 months in China and expanded the things that I learned about the country and the massive changes going on there.

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Posted in travel | Tags: China, dow, national geographic, travel

Horses, horses, horses

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horse racing keeneland
Always bet on the Irish horses!

My hometown of Lexington, KY is touted as being the “horse capital of the world”

I’m sure that some European countries and even cities in the US don’t agree, and I’m not sure who took it upon themselves to count all of the horses, but this time of year it seems rather true. Horse racing is in full swing, I will be out photographing the Kentucky Rolex (horse jumping) this week, and then coming soon is the Derby.

The Spring horse racing session is on at Keeneland so I got out in the drizzly weather to take a look. It is difficult to get good pictures this time of year because it is either raining or getting ready to rain and the sky glows a nuclear white thanks to the sunshine trying to burn a hole through the rampant humidity.

The horse races are a big part of local culture though, and as someone told me a long time ago, always go where the action is.

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Posted in USA | Tags: keeneland, Kentucky, lexington kentucky, travel, USA