Sunday Postcard 15
Dubai, UAE August 2018
Eric and I have a
photo from the last day of the first trip we took together in 2010. We
look tired and happy. I made sure to take one on our last day of our
three months in Southeast Asia, though maybe I should have done it
before the eight hour overnight layover.
Sunday Postcard #14
Outside Siem Reap, Cambodia July 2018
This is our last Sunday in Southeast Asia before we head back to the states. This summer has been a lesson in time for me. Events that happened a few days ago feel like they happened weeks before, living in Ann Arbor feels like a year ago, and yet the entire three months we've been away feels like a blink. Earlier this week, our friend Laura - our neighbor in Ann Arbor - was in town. She and I took a four hour round trip tuk-tuk ride to see Beng Mealea, an overgrown and remarkable temple. We could hear thunder approaching during the two hours we walked through the temple complex, but luckily the rain held off until we started the ride back. After a stormy ride to Siem Reap, we could see a full arc of a rainbow behind us.
Sunday Postcard #13
Chiang Mai, Thailand, July 2018
Eric and I got engaged when we were traveling for most of 2012. We started planning the wedding and I became obsessed with lights. I took pictures of every pretty light fixture we saw, so many of my travel photos from that year are of lanterns, bulbs, and string lights. (Honestly, I was trying to recreate look from the Mumford & Sons "Little Lion Man" video.) When we got married in 2014, we decorated with dozens of carnival lights. We keep finding beautiful lights this summer, too, and places like this outdoor mall in Chiang Mai let me celebrate our wedding again and again.
Sunday Postcard #12
Siem Reap, Cambodia July 2018
Allez les bleus!
Sunday Postcard 11
Road to Pai, July 2018
Between Kathmandu
to Pokhara and back and Chiang Mai to Pai, I’ve spent about 20 hours on
winding bus rides in the past couple weeks. Though I don’t love
switchback roads, part of me always enjoys long road trips. Even when I
was a kid, I loved knowing that there was nothing else I was supposed to
do besides sitting back and reading a book. Before driving to visit my
grandparents or visiting my siblings at college, I’d pack a pile of
library books to last the whole ride and then some. It’s still one of my
favorite parts of getting ready for a trip.
Sunday Postcard 10
Pokhara, Nepal June 2018
We spent five days in
this lakeside town surrounded by mountains. It sent my mind to the
waterfronts and hills I love: summer in Chicago, eating ice cream in
western Michigan beach towns, a family reunion in Montana where we had
the biggest water fight, the surprise road trip to Vermont with my mom,
her best friend, and four of us kids, and others. I loved being in
Pokhara while simultaneously wanting to be in all the other places I’ve
loved. Traveling always forces me to remember that I bring everything
along with me.
Sunday Postcard #9
Pokhara, Nepal June 2018
When
we were in Pokhara, I got to see this little white dog with tan ears
every day. He or she looked like a toasted marshmallow. He guarded a
store/restaurant/guest house. Two mornings ago, I was waiting for coffee
across the street when I heard an explosion of barking. Two large dogs
came running out of the guest house across the street with Marshmallow
Pup hot on their heels, telling them what’s what. I was amazed that such
a small dog could scare off two large ones, and then Marshmallow Pup’s
person stepped out behind him for the chase. Marshmallow Pup may not
have been the reason the two dogs ran off, but he spent the rest of the
morning looking quite triumphant.
