»»» American Etiquette Abroad    September 4th, 2006:
  There is an interesting article at The Wall Street Journal online. The article reports our government's proposed attempt to cut down on "ugly Americans" traveling abroad by giving businesses "simple suggestions" for their traveling employees. Entitled "The World Citizens Guide," it is proposed to be included with every passport issued, but details have not been finalized yet.

  The advice targets a series of common American traits and includes:

• Think as big as you like but talk and act smaller. (In many countries, any form of boasting is considered very rude. Talking about wealth, power or status - corporate or personal - can create resentment.)
• Listen at least as much as you talk. (By all means, talk about America and your life in our country. But also ask people you're visiting about themselves and their way of life.)
• Save the lectures for your kids. (Whatever your subject of discussion, let it be a discussion not a lecture. Justified or not, the US is seen as imposing its will on the world.)
• Think a little locally. (Try to find a few topics that are important in the local popular culture. Remember, most people in the world have little or no interest in the World Series or the Super Bowl. What we call "soccer" is football everywhere else. And it's the most popular sport on the planet.)
• Slow down. (We talk fast, eat fast, move fast, live fast. Many cultures do not.)
• Speak lower and slower. (A loud voice is often perceived as bragging. A fast talker can be seen as aggressive and threatening.)
• Your religion is your religion and not necessarily theirs. (Religion is usually considered deeply personal, not a subject for public discussions.)
• If you talk politics, talk - don't argue. (Steer clear of arguments about American politics, even if someone is attacking US politicians or policies. Agree to disagree.)

  For more information, check out worldcitizensguide.org, where you can download the free abbreviated guide for everyone or the full Executive Brochure, which includes "16 Tips for Business Travelers" (only the first 30,000 will be free). You can also order a 60-page Student Booklet from the website. If you are still craving more information on this, check out Voice of America for an article which includes video interviews.

 »»» Living > Blogging    May 9th, 2006:
  If this website was my kid, it would have been taken away by Child Services long ago. A friend pointed out that I still haven't added to the site all of my photos from my Eastern European trip, a trip I took two years ago this month. Treating kahunna.net in this way hasn't been done on purpose, though. Life gets busy. And until I refurbish my blogging with some sort of publishing platform (right now it is all coded by hand), things might continue to be slow. Nonetheless, working slowly is better than standing still.

  With that said, I'm here to provide you with some quick updates. Below are some short summaries to the noteworthy trips I have taken in the last few months. Click on the title to be taken to the photographs.

  Joshua Tree National Park - March 26-27, 2006
Friends Phil and Tony and I drove to JT for a short weekend camping trip. Being their first trip, I wanted to slowly acclimate them to the harsh environment by car camping at Ryan Campground. However, not only was Ryan filled to max capacity, but all of the official campsites were packed. No problem! Plan B had to be implemented: an hour hike into the wilderness carrying minimal gear, then another ten minutes bouldering up into a box canyon. Since discovering the location on one of my first journeys into JT a few years ago, I've learned that I could always count on the calmness and serenity it offered. While hiking out to the canyon with friends, I enjoy sharing with them a story on just how remote it is: Hiking the canyon in January 2004, I dropped my favorite pocket knife somewhere in the canyon. I had thought it was lost forever. However, four months later I returned to find it exactly where it had dropped! Friends have suggested that I name the place Kahunna Canyon since it appears that I am the only frequent visitor.

  Tony and Philip easily handled the hike and camp preparation. Neither had done any camping since their youth and yet they had no problems at all setting up a two-man tent. When night fell, we sat closely around a stove cooking S'mores and watching the flame from the gas stove reveal large granite boulders in a calming blue light. I introduced them to my favorite camping companion: the night sky. Big city boys like us tend to see more stars in Hollywood than those in the sky, so pointing out the Milky Way to Tony and Phil was an excellent moment. Both couldn't recall ever seeing it before. The next day, we hiked out and took the long way out of the park, through the southern entrance.

  Bend, Oregon - April 10-16, 2006
  My trip to Bend to spend a week on vacation and celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday had a rough start. The shuttle company I relied upon to get me to the airport on time didn't live up to their end of the deal and I missed my flight by about 20 minutes. Friday rolled into Saturday without a wink of sleep and by Saturday afternoon, I realized that the guest pass my airline-employed friend gave me wasn't going to fly on the first weekend of spring break. I ended up having to buy another ticket from priceline for a flight out of Burbank. I arrived in Bend, Oregon, and was greeted by my parents, whom drove up the week before from Southern California. I left my camping gear at home due to forcasted bad weather, but it ended up being better than expected and it rained just once or twice during the otherwise sunny week. This gave me more time time to see family and sip Chai teas at the cafes in the Historical center of town. I realized that Bend is my Elizabethtown. A place I needed to go for a vacation to excape from the pressures of life, but not a place to permanently live.

  I have wanted to move to this small High Desert town for many years, but a week in Bend made me realize that I've had it good all along. Prior to going up to Bend, I came to the realization that I need to make Los Angeles more of my home before leaving it. Being the second largest metropolitan area in the US you can imagine that it can feel like one big mass of humanity sometimes, making it difficult to find niches to call one's own. But I've made it a goal to find some niches and hope to share them here on the site.

  I'm going on an unexpected trip next weekend, but I'll save the details for the next entry later this week.

 »»» When Life Takes Its Turns    March 17th, 2006:
  It has been too long since my last entry. I have had quite a few things happen in my life during the last half year. Like a roller coaster ride, my life took its twists and turns. Now I'm back to dust off the site and give it that lemony-fresh scent. Plus, I've got a lot of great stuff to share with you!

  Travels: Since my last post some five months ago, I had gone on a few adventures. To celebrate my big three-oh birthday, my family and I stayed a week in a cushy resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was great to go on a "vacation" and spend time sitting around a pool with my sunscreen-covered nose buried in a book. It was one of my goals to just relax, after all. However, I did complete a couple other personal goals: be the only 'gringo' on a local bus, experience the local day-to-day lifestyle of the area, and explore the jungles of the Sierra Madre.
  Mexico was my only international trip, but I took some local weekend trips in the past five months as well: two trips to Death Valley and two trips to Joshua Tree. I will post photos of all of these trips shortly.

  Websites: In my last entry, I talked about how I was going to be working for "weeks" on a new section of my site called "The Explorer's Library". Well, those weeks became months, and the section became a new website called retrotravels.net! I realized that I have enough information and resources on the subject of travel during the "Golden Age" (1890-1939) to create a new and unique website. The process of transforming the information from the pages of vintage guidebooks into html is taking longer than I expected, but I should have something more than a blog up soon.
  I have also become a co-partner and web designer for a new project called eurotrek.net, a website that will be dedicated to helping out budget travelers. As we build the site, you are free to ask questions on our large message board filled with many travellers with years of experience.
  And if that's not enough, I am also working on yet another website which will sell podcasts of walking tours of the Los Angeles area. When it rains, it pours, eh?

  Upcoming Events: I'll be going on a few local trips in the next couple months. In about a week, I'll be making another run out to my favorite National Park with a few friends. They haven't been to Joshua Tree and I'm sure it will be easy to show them why I love it so much while we're camping and hiking for two days. In April, I'll be flying into central Oregon to explore the area for a week. Originally planned as a reconnaissance mission to find a job and an apartment, it is now simply a chance to enjoy the outdoor wonders of the high desert, like kayaking the Deshutes River, or hiking in the Cascades. As always, I'll be packing my camera for these trips and will share the results on my return.

 »»» The Explorer's Library    October 24th, 2005:
  For the next couple of weeks, you might hear sounds of eHammering and eSawing coming from this webpage. I'll be working on a new section of my site that will probably take up way too much of my time to do anything else on here, but should result in a great addition to the ever-growing world of Kahunna.net. The section will be called The Explorer's Library and will feature vintage guidebooks and autobiographic travel books from my personal collection. With each book, you'll be able to read information about the writer and their journey, as well as view selected passages and maps. You will also be able to study ephemera found in the book, like train tickets, pressed flowers or marginalia left by the owners long ago but preserved between its pages.
  I have already begun construction on The Explorer's Library. At work today, I sketched out a map of the new section and how I want it to look and feel. In my mind's eye, I see it looking like a forgotten shelf of a traveler's library. I want it to feel aged, dusty, slightly-dilapidated, but with a strong sense of soul and purpose, like a child's favorite stuffed animal that's missing an eye and leaking cotton at a broken seam. Many of the books are torn, water-damaged, sun-damaged and missing pages, but these were not heavily neglected books, they were heavily loved books. I hope that The Explorer's Library can point out the distinction between these two by example of the latter.

A rough design sketch for The Explorer's Library
  I doubt if any of these old books will ever be found on the auction block at Sotheby's. In fact, many of them were bought on eBay for just a few dollars. Despite their condition, they are priceless capsules of history, holding insight into the author's era and, in some instances, the previous owner's life and travels as well. One book I will feature on The Explorer's Library is a copy of Baedeker's Guidebook to Central Italy from 1909. All of what I know about the previous owner and her journey was gathered from the scribbles notations she left in the margins of the book's pages: Her name was Ida R Hood and she carried the guidebook on her travels to Italy in the summer of 1914. She joined her Aunt Mary and cousin's Alfred & Louise in Rome in May. On May 13th, she picked a clover from the Protestant Cemetery of Rome and slid it into the book as a keepsake (96 years later, the clover still lies undisturbed). The last dated note penciled into the guidebook was from the Tuscan medieval walled town of San Gimignano on June 21, 1914... one week before Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, igniting the First World War.
  Well, I've got a lot of work to do so I'm off to warm up my scanner, open up Photoshop, and charge the battery for my digital camera. But before I go, I'd like to share a template design I completed last night. Click on the thumbnail below to see the full page (none of the links will be active). Enjoy!

 »»» Death Valley Trip Report    October 22nd, 2005:

  In what seems like nearly a lifetime ago, I was a huge fan of the Star Wars films. Like most kids of the 1970s, I grew up with the action figures, Luke Skywalker underoos and plastic light sabers. However, my obsession took on a life all its own in 1997 when the original trilogy was re-released in theaters. My obsessive- compulsive tendencies pushed me into a ream of fandom few ever see. I passionately studied the non-fictional aspect of the films: I read as many books I could find that discussed the production of the series. I traveled to Death Valley many times in search of the handful of locations used for small pick-up shots in two of the original Star Wars films. Before each trip, I would ask my Star Wars friends if they would like to go, promoting the trips out to the Mohave with the catchy slogan "Tatooine or Bust!," referencing the desert planet from the film series where young Luke Skywalker grew up. Back in November of 2003, as a birthday gift for a friend, I organized my sixth trip to Death Valley - "Tatooine or Bust VI." Fourteen friends and I set aside 3-days for the trip and good times were had by all.
  Unfortunately, four friends were out of the country at the time of the trip. When they returned, they had to endure the telling of story after story of the exciting adventures, which made appearances in conversations for months. Obviously, they knew they had missed out and wished another trip would be planed soon - one that they could be apart of. So, in October of 2004, we came up with a solution: let those who did not go the first time pick the date for the next outing. Calendars were carefully studied. Appointment books perused. Finally, the right time to go was decided upon: October 7-9th, 2005.
  A year passed and word had been spread among friends that there would be another trip to "Tatooine." Preparations were made: time was requested off from work months in advance, camping supplies were purchased, and transportation was organized. On the eve of the departure, we had close to 30 people ready to egress from all over the Los Angeles area in three separate caravans. What arrived into Death Valley was an eclectic mix of people. Most in the group were Star Wars fans. Among them, four pre-teenagers who were most likely first introduced to characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Artoo Deetoo in the 2001 Star Wars prequel, Episode One - The Phantom Menace. We also had a few older die-hard fans as well, who grew up with the franchise and who stood in line to see A New Hope in 1977. Some of those in their late teens and early twenties brought home-made Star Wars props and costumes for wearing at the sites. But not all in the expedition were fans of the films: some had reluctantly joined the excursion to keep their Star Wars-loving spouses and children company.
  Whatever the level of fandom for Star Wars - if any - all that went had a great time exploring the wonders of Death Valley. Many of those on this trip had never been to Death Valley before. I enjoyed watching and hearing their reactions as we drove down into the valley on Highway 190. It was said best in The Best in Tent Camping - Southern California: "Seeing Death Valley for the first time is like seeing the earth without clothes." The blue sky is in stark contrast to the palette of browns and oranges of the dusty landscape. As a Star Wars fan, I once pictured fictional characters like Jawas and Tusken Raiders hiding in the narrow canyons or behind a mound of colored earth. Since then, my enjoyment of the Star Wars films has all but faded away. Today, I see Death Valley as a natural wonder, not as a large natural movie set. With every trip, I have discovered something new and wondrous in the 3.4 million acres of the national park, the largest in the contiguous United States.
  I had planned visits to seven filming locations, each having a unique look to the Mohave Desert and a great introduction to Death Valley. A favorite location for the group was traversing the frozen rippled waves of sand at the Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes. My favorite is Twenty-Mule Team Canyon, where we explored the abandoned borax mines dug into the deeply-eroded hills. Fortunately, we had time on Sunday before we left to visit Badwater Basin, the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. This basin has formed a unique layer of salt and other minerals which were left behind when rain water evaporated countless times for thousands of years. Wearing shorts and sandals, I walked with our group out onto the stark white saltpan; thoughts of falling through ice on a frozen lake came to mind when the salty layer covering the mud started to make crunching sounds with every step.
  The weather was very mild compared to Death Valley norms, hovering just under 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and drastically dipping into the mid-sixties at night, causing a powerful wind to blow through the valley until just after dusk. I stayed up until midnight and gazed up at the brilliant canvas of stars, wondering if this would be my last trip to this beautiful-yet-desolate landscape.
  On the drive home Sunday night, I thought of how much I would miss visiting Death Valley. It has become one of my favorite national parks and I doubted I would see it again after I move to Oregon next year. When I got home, I told my parents about the fantastic geography of Death Valley and shared the photos I took. A few days later, they called me up with great news: we would be spending Christmas this year at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley! It will be nice to spend time in Death Valley without any persuasion from friends to see the area as a fictional world. Then again, it doesn't take much to envision such a place as it is.

Link of the Day: Treasure Island ~ 600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island: A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island. "The biggest treasure in history has been located," said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10 billion.

 »»» Mohave Photos    October 11th, 2005:
  I had an excellent time in Death Valley this past weekend. I'll give the full report later this week, but for now, enjoy these photos I posted for your perusing pleasure.
  On the way out to the desert, we stopped briefly in the small town of Mohave where I had a few minutes to check out the local thrift store. I found the following photos. Thought they were unique so I scanned them for later use in a project.

I liked how this shot was framed. The out-of-focus feline in the foreground makes me think of a care-free summer day. There isn't a date on the photo, but it looks like it was taken in the mid 1940s.

A note was written on the back of this photo: "Telescope Peak from the Panamint Valley. Death Valley is dry and the snow. Great trip up through Wildrose Canyon and Townes Pass. 1947"

I was attracted to this photo by its ghostly properties. At first glance, it looks as if the subject's legs seem to have faded away. (He is, in fact, standing behind a bush) I have no idea what this man is doing or why he was photographed doing it. The photo isn't dated but I imagine it must be at least 60 years old.

If you were driving along in the Mohave desert one windless day in June of '64 and you saw this large plume of smoke, could you email me and let me know what the heck this is? The photographer didn't write anything on the back, so while I'm anxiously waiting for your email, I'll ponder the endless scenarios of what might have happened.

Link of the Day: National Geographic Radio Programming ~ From the website: National Geographic World is a one-hour, weekly talk show that takes advantage of the hundreds of explorers and scientists fielded by the National Geographic Society. In a dynamic twist on typical radio talk shows, National Geographic World host Peter Laufer calls out to experts all over the world. The spontaneity and excitement of live talk radio combines with the fascinating and inspiring stories told by these heroes.

 »»» eBay yay!    October 5th, 2005:
   A package I've been excitedly awaiting arrived in the mail today from the UK. It's a album of 198 different public transportation ticket stubs that I won on eBay recently. Most of the tickets are from Northern Europe, but there are a few from as far east as the former Soviet Union and as far north as New Jersey. The ages range from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s.
  Now, I know that some of you might be scratching your heads right about now, wondering why I would get something like this. I must admit that it seems pretty strange, but I'm a collector of ephemera, or historical documents like maps, books, or, like this collection, tickets. I plan on scanning each ticket and adding them to my growing database. Who knows... when I become rich and famous (well, maybe just well-paid & recognizable to a few) as a graphic designer, you'll see one of these tickets in my artwork and you'll remember this moment. *wink*

Here's some pics. Go ahead and click on 'em!

Page example #1

Page example #2

Here's a random ticket... for using the streetcars
of Stettiner, Germany

Since it's written in the cyrillic, I can only guess that
this one is from the former Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, the tickets were placed in one of those terrible 'magnetic' photo albums where the adhesive might have permanently bonded the tickets to the pages. If you know of a way to remove them without damaging the tickets, please email me.

Link of the Day: The Voynich Manuscript ~ In 1912, the antiquarian book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich bought a number of mediaeval manuscripts from an undisclosed location in Europe. Among these was an illustrated manuscript codex of 234 pages, written in an unknown script. Voynich took it to the United States and started a campaign to have it deciphered. Now, almost 100 years later, the Voynich manuscript still stands as probably the most elusive puzzle in the world of cryptography. Not a single word of this 'Most Mysterious Manuscript', written probably in the second half of the 15th Century, can be understood. Check out the website for everything about this puzzling piece.

 »»» Lost Wanderlust    September 29th, 2005:
  Wanderlust is an unpredictable emotion. Like love, you really don't know when it might creep into your heart and start factoring into every decision you make. You can't control it but if you're not careful it can control you. It was very unfortunate for me that my wanderlust seemed to leave with each throb of my toothache. By the time I was about to leave work and begin my two-week vacation - time off I requested three months prior - I had absolutely no desire to go anywhere except to see a dentist.

  I just reread my last entry and feel a bit embarrassed. This blog thing is a new experience for me and I tend to just let it flow onto the "paper" and not hold anything back. Nevertheless, I'm feeling a lot better now. That terrible tooth really affected my life! The pain made me feel miserable and very grumpy. Being inside for days at a time, working until the early mornings by the light of my computer screen brought me lower and lower. My mood festered and I fell into an addictive routine of sleeping in until 11am, working all day on the computer or watching TV, and then making my way back to bed around two, three, sometimes even four in the morning.

  Thankfully, I broke out of it and forced myself to return to work. Throughout the day, as I was welcomed back by one coworker after another, I began to realize that my time off was sort of an anti-vacation. Instead of leaving work to find happiness at some happy and relaxing place, I had inadvertently fallen into the mental version of Dante's purgatory for a week. When I finally freed myself, I returned to work to surprisingly discover that I enjoyed it. In the afternoon, I actually was "caught" by a co-worker walking the halls of work with a Cheshire cat grin on my face.

  I can feel my wanderlust starting to come back. Although I wasn't able to go to the Grand Canyon or see Utah, I still have my trip to the Mohave Desert. I will be leading a three-day expedition through Death Valley next weekend, pointing out the filming locations used in the original Star Wars trilogy to a dozen or so uber-Star Wars fans. A lifetime ago, I was once a huge Star Wars fan myself, but this journey was a promise for a friend of mine. I look forward to sharing some good times with him and the others camping under the stars.

  Thank you for your emails of support today. It is always nice to hear from you and your feedback. A few of you had questions about the artwork and design of my new section, Favorite Photos of My First Pilgrimage. Other than a few exceptions, the collages were made using scans and photographs of items I collected in Europe on my 2001 trip. There are 60+ pages, but only two templates: one for verticle photos and one for horizontal photos:

  Many of the items are used on both layouts. The clover in the bottom right corner was plucked from the ruins of Pompeii, Italy and currently rests inside the pages of my journal, which is also pictured. The strange bronze coin with the fetus in the center was given as change in a small shop in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and was released to commemorate the millennium. The map shaped like an envelope with the French postmarks is the letter I brought with me to Europe to complete a goal I had made in 1997. The red lava rock was pocketed when I was atop the sleeping giant of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy.

  I wish all of the items were from my trip, but I wanted to use a couple things that I thought would look cool on my webpage. I frequently peruse eBay for items that might look good incorporated into my website design or artwork. For instance, the broken white clock highlighted on the opening page as well as every page of this section was found for a few bucks on eBay. Same goes for the old map measuring device from Germany. The maps running along the bottom half of both layouts in the background were scanned from the pages of my collection of old Baedeker's Guidebooks. The "horizontal photos" template has a map of central Paris from a 1907 Guide to Paris and It's Environs. You might recognize the city on the other map as that of Rome, which came from Baedeker's Central Italy published in 1909.

Link of the Day: Holy Squid! Photos Offer First Glimpse of Live Deep-Sea Giant ~ One of the coolest news stories of the week comes from Japan. For the first time ever, a living giant squid has been captured on film! Although the elusive sea monsters of the deep aren't considered rare, they have been extremely camera shy. In fact, only beached ten-armed cephalopods have ever been studied. The article states that the squid lost one of its arms when struggling to free itself from the scientist's baited hook. The photographed giant squid measures 18 feet (5.5 meters) long and "analysis of the tentacle confirmed it came from a giant squid and allowed the researchers to estimate the total length of the animal. But the researchers caution that their data assume the tentacle was severed at its base. If not, the squid may have been considerably larger. The longest giant squid on record measured 59 feet (18 meters), including its two elongated tentacles." To see more photos of the elusive sea monster of the deep, head over to NationalGeographic.com.