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Tullaghoge in County Tyrone has to be one of the most atmospheric and evocative sites that we have visited for this blog. At first glance the site looks very much like a large ringfort – a common type of settlement site in the early medieval period. It has a large earthen banks topped by a ring of trees, however the ditches are far too wide to be defensive and the commanding views over the landscape of Tyrone suggest that this was a place of important ceremonies and authority.

The name Tullaghoge comes from Tulach Óg meaning The Hill of Youth. The site has never been archaeologically excavated so the exact age and function of the initial activity at Tullaghoge is unknown. It is likely to date to some time in the early medieval period, between the seventh and ninth centuries. Historical records tell us that the site was originally associated with Uí Tuirtre of Airgialla, and then became the possession of the O’Hagan family. They lived at Tullaghoge and became the hereditary guardians of the symbolic site. The O’Hagans were clients of the powerful O’Neill dynasty, and during the middle and later medieval period, it was the O’Hagans who had the honour of inaugurating the O’Neill chiefs, proclaiming them as ‘The O’Neill’. 

Image from IrishArchaeology.ie

During the crowning ceremony at Tullaghoge, the King elect was seated on a stone inauguration chair known as the Leac na Ri. He swore oaths to rule by Brehon Law (the ancient laws of Ireland) and to give up the throne if he became too old to rule. New sandals were placed on his feet by the chief of the O’Hagans and a golden sandal was ceremonially thrown over his head to indicate he would continue in the footsteps of his ancestors, and then the new king was handed the ceremonial rod of office. The primate of Armagh would then anoint and crown the O’Neill as chief and king. This image from around 1601, depicts the coronation ceremony at Tullaghoge (image sourced from this great blog article http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/08/sacred-trees-in-early-ireland).

The last O’Neill to have been inaugurated at Tullaghoge was the famous Hugh O’Neill in 1595. Hugh was the powerful Earl of Tyrone, and he led a massive rebellion against the Crown forces in Ireland in an attempt to stop the plantations of Ireland and the erosion of the powers of the Gaelic chiefs. This series of conflicts became known as The Nine Years War. After some initial successes, like the Battle of the Yellow Ford, by 1601 the Gaelic Forces had suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Kinsale. Lord Mountjoy led the Crown Forces here, to the Royal Inauguration site of Tullaghoge, and smashed the Leac na Ri, the sacred inauguration stone of the O'Neill's, thereby symbolically breaking the O'Neill sovereignty. At the time it was recorded that Mountjoy 
‘spoiled the corn of all the country...and brake down the chair wherin the O’Neals were wont to be created, being of stone planted in the open field’. 
Fragments of the Leac na Ri were said to have been stored in the orchard of the glebe house of the local protestant church until 1776, when the last of the fragments were taken away.

The O'Neill's never returned to Tullaghoge to claim their lordship as Hugh O'Neill fled Ireland in the Flight of the Earls in 1607. Eventually though the O’Neill’s would return to power albeit in a more indirect way, Hugh O’Neill’s daughter Sorcha married a Magennis who was the ancestor of Lady Glamis. In 1900 Lady Glamis had a daughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, her daughter Elizabeth currently sits on the British throne.

 
The site was said to have been completely abandoned by 1622 and today it is an incredibly atmospheric place to visit. When you enter the centre of the enclosure and are shut off from the modern world by the trees and earthen banks, you can really get a sense of the history of Tullaghoge, a place of celebrations, ceremonies, inaugurations and gatherings for centuries.

Tullaghoge is just around 4km south of Cookstown in County Tyrone, off the B162 (Cookstown to Stewartstown Road), and you’ll see signposts for the site. There is a small area to park at the base of the hill, and a well made stone path leads nearly the whole way to the site. At the end of the path just pass through the small kissing gate. 

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Those were better than I thought they would be (214 East Coast Road, 6247-7477). Granted, my expectations weren't very high in the first place, but either way, they generally did it right by doing it without breading nor excessive amounts of meat. My only gripe was that the hottest "blazin" sauce really wasn't that hot...it was just your standard issue buffalo wing heat rather than the Atomic sauce that Wingstop offers.

The Chaco takes up about 60% of Paraguay and has less than 3% of the population. It is desolate and beyond what we think of as backward or "civilized." It is in this vast and remote region-- no towns, no roads, people don't even speak Spanish here-- that Bush is rumored to have bought his gigantic estate. When rumors first started surfacing about it people assumed he would be using it as a backup in case he had to escape the war crimes charges that could well come after he is out of office. In Latin America the suspicion is that he was making a play for the area's huge acquifer which is said to be more valuable than an oil field, at least for those who think in terms of generations when doing their financial planning. That the two Bush daughters have been down here a few times has added fuel to the fire. I reported the rumors at Down With Tyranny but I wasn't certain it was actually true, even after reading quotes from the governor of the province and other Paraguayan public officials.

Since I got to Paraguay I've been trying to track down the ranch-- with no luck. Some people swear it is true--as did the Paraguayan consul in the U.S. I had spoken to-- and some say it is just a fake rumor. In any case, everyone agrees it would be virtually impossible to find out for sure because the region is so vast and remote. The desk clerk at the Sheraton suggested I hire a private plane to find it since there aren't even roads, let alone buses.

Yesterday I called the U.S. Embassy and had a long, friendly chat with a diplomat. He doesn't seem too enamoured of Paraguay, although he reckons it's better than Pakistan. He complained that Asuncion is remote and cut off from the rest of the world. He also said that they checked and that there is no Bush ranch and no secret U.S. military base. Of course if it were secret, he would hardly be advertising its existence. He suggested I read a State Department statement about both. The official U.S. line is that the Bush ranch is some Cuban disinformation propogated by Prensa Latina.

People tend not to believe anything diplomats say that serve the national interests they represent. Under Bush the credibility of the U.S. State Department has fallen to new lows. Their claims are utterly worthless. That doesn't prove that there is a Bush ranch, however. Is it possible that the daughters were here because one of them works for UNICEF? I doubt it. And even the diplomat admitted to me that she was up in the Chaco visiting backward Menonite communities. It doesn't add up.

I spoke to the wife of a Brazilian general who told me that the base is real and that the ranch has been "100% confirmed" by the Brazilian military intelligence. Is she a good source? She has less reason to lie than the U.S. State Department.

I don't think there's much more I can find out about this whole thing from here. I keep reminding myself I'm on vacation and that I need to get to Tierra del Fuego. I'm going to take a bus to Encarnacion on the Argentine border, cross over to Posadas, the capital of Missiones Province and sniff out the possibilities of going down to Esterios de Iberrà in Corrientes. This is supposed to be the Western Hemisphere's version of the Serengeti. It is a vast, sparcely populated swamp. I don't know what's wrong with me.

Friday is always a good time for a laugh. Today that comes in the form of this video that will tell you everything you need to know about being a mountain biker. For many of us, some of these tips will hit a little too close to home. Which is of course what makes them so funny to begin with.

Although I haven't firmed up any decisions yet, I am starting to mull over two (of the possible 3) Photo-Expeditions™ for 2011 that will be non-Arab Islam-centric. The two expeditions' underlying themes will be documenting the existing syncretism between Islam, its Sufi offshoot and another major tradition. The itineraries will include photographing certain rituals at obscure religious sites, as well as at other locations...I can't be more specific at this stage without letting the cat out of the bag.

As followers of my Photo-Expeditions™ news and of this blog know, I've decided to further accentuate the travel-documentary thrust of my photo~expeditions, and reduce the maximum number of participants to only 5 (excluding myself) on each trip.

My recent expeditions have become so popular that they've swelled up to 9-10 participants, and generated long waiting lists. As of 2011, participation will no longer be based on "first registered first in", but will be based on a portfolio viewing and other criteria. Details of the 2011 itineraries will be announced to subscribers to my newsletter mailing list.

In the meantime, I'm readying some pre-departure information for the participants in my Bali: Island of Odalan Photo-Expedition™ due to start August 1. Exciting stuff!!!

Photograph © Kevin Bubriski-All Rights Reserved
Kevin Burbriski arrived in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1975, and spent about 4 years working in remote villages. He returned in 1984 as a photographer, and with a 4” x 5” view camera, a Nepalese photographic assistant, and two porters, he traveled the length and breadth of the country for the better part of three years.

I mentioned Kevin Bubriski's work on this blog in connection with his exhibition at the Rubin Musuem in NYC, but I read (via PDN) that he was named the 2010-2011 Robert Gardner Visiting Artist Fellow at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology. The fellowship carries a $50,000 stipend and will allow the photographer-documentarian to continue his work in the northwest of Nepal.

His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Center of Photography, all in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Kevin's website showcases his work from Venice, Pakistan, India, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Nepal among other countries...but it's his work of Nepal that resonates the most with me.

Here's a dose of adrenaline to get you through the start of a new week. It's a short but wild wingsuit flight through the mountains near Hintisberg, Switzerland with the pilots going very fast and close. Scary stuff as always and something I prefer to see in a video and not first hand.

GoPro: Close Encounters - Proximity Flying With Jokke Sommer from GoPro on Vimeo.

I've been visiting Thailand for nearly 30 years now. It's a lot easier to find great food in Bangkok now than it was when I first started going but, ironically, the very first Thai restaurant I ever fell in love with, is still my absolute favorite: Bussaracum. When I first found it, in the 80s, it was in a beautiful free-standing traditional house. It's where I learned what Royal Court cuisine is and how different it is from the 99.9% of other Thai restaurants. A few visits later it moved to the elegant Dusit Thani Hotel, now home to a runner-up Royal Court cuisine restaurant, Benjarong, and then soon after to the ground floor of an office building between Silom and Sathorn, right down the street from the Hindu temple complex at Silom and Pan Road.

[UPDATE: Bussaracum Moved To Sukhumvit 55

I've been visiting them for years and years and through three changes of address. Next time I'm in Bangkok-- in a couple of months-- I'll be at the new location too.]

The restaurant is a special event kind of place with incredible and unique dishes on the menu. By Thai standards it's moderately expensive, though not over the top like the restaurants at the big hotels or the exclusively tourist places like the Blue Elephant. But the 7-day a week buffet lunch is the absolute best deal in town. The food is stunning-- pretty much the same stuff you get on the menu-- and the price (240 baht, which is like $7.30) is mind-bogglingly low. Everyday they offer a different assortment of dishes. And everyday the assortment is very wide. I'm a picky eater. I never had a problem finding lots of delicious, relatively healthful food to eat.

With the exception of an international seafood buffet lunch at Lord Jim's in the Oriental Hotel (expensive by even western standards but really excellent), I had lunch at Bussaracum every single day I was in Bangkok-- and that was nearly a month. Normally I love going around and trying all the good places in Bangkok-- and that was my intention when I first arrived in early December. I've written about the best Thai restaurants in the past and I was eager to get back to Patara, for example. Unfortunately when I got to it, it was just a big hole in the earth. They're supposed to be re-opening in the Sukumvit area... soon.

I always have my first meal in Thailand at Bussaracum and, as usual, it was so delicious that when I found Patara demolished on day 2, I went back to Bussaracum. Every dish they were offering was different. That's when it dawned on me that it didn't make sense to eat anywhere else. The food is the best and so are the prices low (for quality food) that it's actually mind-blowing. Everyday was a wonderful culinary experience. Each day there were 5 or 6 tables laden with food: salads, soup, appetizers, desserts and main courses in chafing dishes. I was thrilled when I realized that aside from the white rice and fried rice, they also have brown rice.

Like I said, each day there were different choices. Over the course of the month, the offerings included this list. I eat fruits, vegetables and seafood but I'm including the meat dishes as well so you can get a good idea of the variety and breadth of their meals.

-Deep-fried shrimps
-Deep-fried Chinese sausage wrapped in omelet
-Deep-fried wonton
-Minced shrimp on toast
-Fried breaded Thai sausage
-Deep-fried crabmeat with minced pork
-Spicy sour sausage salad
-Spicy tuna fish salad
-Cowslip creeper flower spicy salad with shrimp
-Soy bean dip with vegetable
-Fish balls in green curry
-Stir-fried grilled pork with chili paste
-Baked glass noodle with pork
-Fried boiled egg in tamarind sauce
-Fried pork cake
-Fried filet of fish with celery
-Stir-fried bean sprouts with pork
-Stir-fried pork with basil leaves & long beans
-Deep-fried minced vegetables wrapped in bean curd pastry
-Spicy minced duck salad
-Grilled pork neck spicy salad
-Grilled duck in red curry
-Steamed crabmeat curry
-Deep-fried filet of seabass with chili sauce
-Fried mixed vegetables
-Clear soup
-Deep-fried breaded marinated chicken
-Deep-fried breaded marinated chicken
-Stir-fried pork with basil leaves & eggplant
-Stir-fried Tuna fish with chili
-Chili paste dip with yellow eggplant & omelet
-Fried rice with tamarind chili paste
-Deep-fried filet of fish with celery
-Stir-fried pork with cashew nuts
-Stir-fried spring onion with pork liver in oyster sauce
-Stir-fried long bean with squids
-Stir-fried pork with black pepper sauce
-Spicy crabmeat salad
-Spicy pork sausage salad
-Spicy squid salad with lemongrass
-Vegetable spice-dip with shrimp
-Thai noodles with curry fish sauce southern style
-Catfish in green curry
-Pork in red curry Northern style
-Baked pork with vegetables in brown sauce
-Fried pork with garlic & peppers
-Steamed mushroom curry
-Stir-fried fish fillet with celery
-Fried pork with sweet pepper
-Stir-fried vegetables with crispy pork
-Spicy-dip fried rice with salty egg
-Barbecued marinated pork on skewers
-Variety choice of salad with ham
-Thick curry with chicken
-Shang Hai noodle soup
-Deep-fried eggroll wrapped with carrots and peas
-Spicy grilled catfish salad 
-Thai noodles with chicken curry sauce
-Grilled pork in curry sauce
-Stir-fried white lettuce with shrimp balls
-Stir-fried Shanghai noodles with pork and basil
-Minced shrimps & pork in mashed taro
-Pork leg in spicy soup
-Fish & banana bud cake
-Tamarind soup with Sesbania flower
-Fried glass noodles with salty egg
-Asparagus & carrots in oyster sauce
-Deep-fried minced vegetable wrapped in bean curd pastry-Baked glass noodle with pork
-Stir-fried squash with carrot
-Sweetened lotus stem custard
-Stir-fried bean sprouts with crispy pork & soft beancurd
-Spicy lotus stem salad with shrimps & chicken
-Baked chicken with vegetable in brown sauce
-Tuna fish curry with Thai noodles
-Chicken leg in soya soup
-Stir-fried chicken with bamboo shoots in chili paste
-Stir-fried squid in chili paste
-Chicken wings in soya soup
-Traditional Thai noodles with coconut milk sauce
-Lotus stems in coconut milk with mackerel
-Mackerel in thick curry
-Chicken wings soup with pickled lime
-Three kinds of mushrooms in oyster sauce
-Stir-fried chicken with lemongrass
-Quail egg salad
-Deep-fried crabmeat & minced pork sausage
-Dried shrimp spice-dip with vegetables
-Baked shrimp with glass noodles
-Steamed squid curry
-Stir-fried Taiwanese vegetable with oyster sauce
-Papaya salad with coconut cream rice
-Spicy straw mushrooms salad
-Deep-fried breaded fish balls
-Deep-fried bean curd
-Stir-fried pork balls in curry with bamboo shoots
-Noodle soup with pork
-Deep-fried breaded fish sausage
-Spicy wing bean salad with mint leaves 
-Stir-fried macaroni with crabmeat
-Fried rice with pork
-Lotus seeds with coconut cream
-Stir-fried pork with oyster sauce
-Spicy chicken breast salad
-Thai noodles with peanut curry sauce
-Grilled pork in green curry
-Roasted chicken in red curry
-Stir-fried squids and green bean in chili paste
-Pork noodle soup
-Pork spare rib spicy soup
-Fried boiled egg in tamarind sauce
-Thai noodles/ fish curry sauce
-Steamed fish
-Spice-dip fried rice with salty egg
-Spicy squid salad
-Thick fish curry
-White bean sauce dip with vegetables
-Northern-style spice dip with mince pork & tomato
-Bitter squash salad with minced pork and shrimp
-White mushroom salad
-Ground pork & pork skin salad with peanut
-Fried spicy noodles
-Stir-fried kale with salty fish
-Chinese sausage salad
-Bussaracum spice-dip with salty egg & crispy catfish
-Stir-fried cauliflower & carrot with oyster sauce
-Pork ball green curry
-Chinese herbal leave salad with pork & shrimps
-Spicy shrimp balls salad
-Vegetable spice-dip with fried pork
-Fish ball green curry
-Fried Cha-om in tamarind soup
-Shang Hai noodle soup with pork
-Fried glass noodle with pork
-Stir-fried pork spare with chili paste
-Deep-fried sun dried pork
-Pork noodle in bitter squash soup
-Fried pork with chili
-Ginger, shrimps, pork & chicken salad
-Crab meat & minced pork sausage
-Deep-fried chicken with cumin
-Fried noodle
-Sweetened coconut in coconut milk
-Fried mackerel salad
-Fish’s maw, crispy squid and peanut salad
-Chicken green curry
-Deep-fried E-San sausage
-Pork cake brochette with lemongrass
-Spicy-dip with salty egg & crispy catfish
-Broccoli, mushroom & carrot with oyster sauce
-Crispy yellow noodle with pork in gravy sauce
-Pork noodle soup
-Tuna in brown sauce
-Stir-fried pork stuffed pepper
-Steamed chicken curry with coconut milk
-Thick curry with chicken
-Mussel salad with lemongrass
-Traditional Thai vegetable soup
-Egg noodle soup with roasted pork
-Eggroll with minced pork and green peas
-Stir-fried pork spare ribs with chili paste
-Sweetened tapioca with corn kernels & young coconut
-Sa-rim
-Mango salad with anchovies
-Minced pork & corn cake
-Stuffed squid with minced pork in green curry
-Spicy lemongrass salad
-Spicy sausage salad
-Fish balls green curry
-Three kinds of vegetable in brown sauce
-Fish’s maw, crispy squid and peanuts salad
-Crispy chicken salad with lemongrass
-Pork leg in brown sauce
-Drunken pork with coconut sprout
-Spice dip young peppercorn with omelet
-Sweet crispy noodles
-Mussel salad
-Stir-fried squid with chili paste
-Fried noodles with chicken
-Steamed crabmeat with coconut curry
-Stir-fried chicken with yellow chili & bamboo shoots
-Fried squash with egg, pork and shrimp
-Spicy cockles salad with Lemongrass
-Cockles salad
-Stuffed chicken wings in thick curry
-Omelet with pork & vegetables
-Fried rice with ham
-Fried soft bean curd
-Minced shrimp on toast
-Stir-fried lettuce with shrimp balls
-Pork skin salad with deep-fried rice balls
-Spicy mushroom salad
-Spice dip & boiled egg
-Shrimp sauce dip with vegetables
-Chicken in pandanus leaves
-Sweet & sour fish
-Stir-fried chicken & mushrooms in chili paste
-Pork masaman curry
-Minced pork stuffed chicken legs
-Rice balls
-Spicy mixed salad
-Chicken sausage & pork salad
-Fried rice with pineapple
-Stir-fried pork in green curry sauce
-Spicy minced chicken salad
-Combination mixed spicy salad
-Baked chicken with vegetables
-Shrimp-stuffed fish cakes
-Yellow chicken curry
-Stir-fried crabmeat with curry powder
-Stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts
-Fried beef with oyster sauce
-Fried pork with basil leaves
-Fried pork cake
-Stir-fried grilled pork with curry paste
-Stir-fried young kale with oyster sauce
-Finger crab salad
-Minced pork, bean curd & bean sprout wrapped in large noodle
-Spicy seafood salad
-Stuffed minced pork & condiments in tapioca balls
-Stir-fried kale in oyster sauce
-Filet of fish in green curry
-Spicy crispy chicken salad
-Fried chicken with garlic & pepper
-Stir-fried pork with chili paste & mushroom
-Sweetened taro in coconut milk
-Crabmeat & pork sausage
-Boiled egg spicy salad
-Spicy morning glory Salad with shrimps
-Tuna salad with lemongrass
-Salty fish dip with vegetables
-Stewed chicken legs
-Mushroom & fish cake
-Fried chicken salad
-Spicy Tuna fish salad
-Crispy rice with minced pork dip
-Spice dip with green mango & Thai omelet
-Stewed duck noodle soup
-Stir-fried asparagus with crispy pork
-Sticky rice
-Stir-fried chicken with soya bean sauce
-Fried fish with basil leave
-Tamarind spice dip with omelet
-Chicken in red curry with green melon
-Fried rice with crabmeat
-Stir-fried Taiwanese vegetable
-Pork noodle soup
-Cowslip creeper flower in tamarind soup with shrimps
-Deep-fried fish in tamarind sauce & fresh ginger
-Deep-fried catfish salad with lemongrass
-Fried pork with pineapple
-Chicken curry puff
-Fried chicken with lemongrass
-Stir-fried chicken with chili paste
-Fried pork with basil leaves
-Chicken fried rice
-Spicy soft bean curd
-Fried Cantonese vegetable with oyster sauce
-Deep-fried spring rolls
-Fried potato Thai style
-Pork salad with eggplant and lemongrass
-Salty egg dip with vegetables
-Stir-fried squid with basil leaves
-Fried macaroni with chicken
-Fried kale with oyster sauce
-Stir-fried squash with pork & egg
-Fried rice with crabmeat
-Stir-fried chicken with fresh ginger
-Sesbania flower salad with shrimps
-Spice dip young peppercorn with Thai omelet
-Fish balls in wonton pastry
-Spicy black mushroom salad
-Shrimps dip with vegetables
-Spicy lemongrass salad
-Stuffed crescents with mung bean fillings
-Fried chicken with condiments
-Chieng Mai sausage salad
-Grilled pork in green curry
-Masaman chicken curry
-Steamed fish curry
-Stir-fried kale with crispy pork
-Sweet and sour chicken
-Fried fish balls with chili paste
-Pork in red curry
-Fried mixed vegetables
-Stir-fried bitter squash leaves with oyster sauce
-Stir-fried fish in brawn sauce
-Stir-fried cabbage with oyster sauce
-Three kinds of mushroom salad
-Spicy Shang Hai noodle salad
-Chicken noodle soup
-Fried fish & mushroom cake
-Stuffed sweet pepper with pork in brawn sauce
-Fried fish cake
-Deep-fried bean curd
-Stir-fried chicken & long bean with chili paste
-Fried egg topping with green peas & minced pork sauce
-Squids in green curry
-Fish balls noodle soup
-minced shrimp and pork in mashed taro
-Spicy fresh ginger salad with pork, chickens & shrimps
-Gravy noodle with pork
-Gravy noodle with chicken
-Steamed fish with ginger
-Stuffed bitter squash with pork in brawn sauce
-Cauliflower & broccoli with oyster sauce
-Kale & Chinese sausage fried rice
-Stir-fried squid with basil leaves
-Papaya salad
-Stir-fried pork spare ribs with chili paste
-Fried squids with curry powder
-Stir-fried chicken with basil leaves & coconut sprout
-Egg noodle with roasted pork
-Egg noodle with pork
-Egg noodle with chicken
-Boiled egg salad
-Deep-fried taro with black bean
-Deep-fried fish with chili paste
-Fried steamed fish in chili sauce
-Shrimp paste dip with vegetables & fried fish
-Sour soup with pork, potato & basil leaves
-Stir-fried mixed vegetables
-Grilled pork with spicy dip
-Flower tempura
-Stir-fried chicken with chili
-Fried chicken in pandanus leaves
-Green salad
-Salty fish & kale fried rice
-Fried fish cake with glass noodle
-Egg custard
-Steamed fish with plum
-Stir-fried roasted duck with chili & basil leaves
-Combinations of jelly
-Crispy rice cups
-Spicy fish balls salad
-Drunken pork with bamboo shoots
-Stuffed chicken wings with pork
-Deep-fried chicken with cumin
-Green mango salad
-Spicy dip fresh chili with deep-fried pork skin
-Deep-fried catfish with chili paste
-Baked pork with honey
-Steamed fish curry with fresh bamboo shoots
-Deep-fried breaded mackerel
-Stir-fried pickled vegetable with crispy pork
-Yellow noodle soup with chicken
-Stir-fried pork with chili
-Stir-fried pork balls with chili
-Deep-fried vegetable spring rolls with condiments
-Fried eggs topping with minced pork & green pea
-Fried rice with egg
-Fried Cha-om spicy salad
-Steamed mussels curry
-Three kinds of mock ark shells
-Stir-fried tuna fish with chili sauce
-Boiled quail eggs salad
-Deep-fried breaded fish balls
-Fried mackerel Hor d’ oeuvres with lemongrass
-Stir-fried fillet with celery
-Pork curry with morning glory
-Pork skin salad with deep-fried rice balls
-Fried fish spice dip with boiled eggs
-Baked chicken legs with kale
-Fried noodle Thai style
-Stir-fried vegetables with crabmeat
-Egg bean curd with minced pork, carrot & green peas
-Chicken fried rice
-Fish spice dip with boiled egg
-Spicy sausage salad
-Spicy chopped duck salad
-Grilled pork salad with kale
-Spicy mushroom salad
-Spicy squid salad with Lemongrass
-Spicy lemongrass salad
-Spicy catfish salad with green mango
-Spicy crabmeat salad
-Glass noodle salad
-Mussels salad with lemongrass
-Spicy shrimp balls salad
-Spicy Shang Hai noodle salad
-Glass noodle salad with shrimps, pork & chicken
-Grilled pork salad with lemongrass & eggplants
-Spicy coconut sprout salad
-Spicy banana bud salad
-Crispy chicken salad with lemongrass
-Spicy wing bean salad
-Grilled pork with spice dip
-Fried fish salad
-Spicy mussels salad
-Stir-fried chicken with long bean in chili paste
-Stir-fried pork with long bean in chili paste
-Stir-fried chicken & bamboo shoots with chili
-Stir-fried chicken & long bean in chili paste
-Stir-fried squids with chili paste
-Steamed Seabass with lime sauce
-Stir-fried fish balls with yellow chili
-Stir-fried catfish with yellow chili
-Minced pork in cucumber soup
-Fish stuffed bell peppers in dry curry
-Rice pastry with minced pork
-Spicy bean sprout salad
-Vietnamese pancake
-Deep-fried wanton pastry
-Tuna fish in dried curry
-Ham dips with vegetables
-Deep-fried breaded crab finger
-Pork & chicken sausage salad
-Chicken cake
-Pan-fried chicken with lemongrass, garlic & chili
-Deep-fried pork with salty fish
-Steamed Seabass in herb soup
-Grill fish spicy dip with boiled egg
-Cowslip creeper flower salad with shrimps
-Deep-fried eggroll wrapped with carrots & peas
-Spicy minced pork salad
-Stewed pork soup
-Royal Thai sweet crispy noodle
-Spicy-dip with salty egg
-Fish balls in green curry
-Deep-fried filet of fish in tamarind sauce
-Heaven dish
-Stir-fried pork with long bean in chili paste
-Deep-fried whole banana wrapped with soft sticky rice mixed
-Chicken in thick yellow curry
-Chicken wing in brown sauce
-Fried fish cake
-Stir-fried kale with salty fish in oyster sauce
-Crabmeat fried rice
-Steamed jasmine rice
-Minced pork toast
-Crispy cup with crispy noodles
-Deep fried spring rolls
-Deep-fried catfish with garlic & pepper in chili paste
-Deep-fried minced pork with salty egg
-Asparagus, baby corn & carrot in oyster sauce
-Deep-fried taro
-Spicy seafood salad
-Finger crab in wonton pastry
-Pork in thick curry
-Spicy glass noodle salad
-Shrimp paste dip with green mango & omelet
-Green curry with chicken
-Spicy chicken soup with mushroom
-Fried egg in brown sauce with minced pork & green peas
-Fried fish cake
-Fried chicken with cashew nuts
-Deep-fried filet of Seabass with black pepper
-Vegetarian fried rice
-Thai noodle with mushroom curry sauce
-Egg noodle with mock roasted pork
-Stir-fried vegetarian glass noodle
-Pineapple fried rice
-Crispy rice with vegetarian sauce dip
Deep-fried banana bud
-Spicy white mushroom salad
-Spicy black mushroom salad
-Soy bean dip with vegetables
-Mock baked pork with kale in brown sauce
-Steamed vegetarian curry
-Stir-fried green bean with chili paste
-Stir-fried Macaroni
-Deep-fried pumpkin stick
-Spicy pomelo salad
-Soft bean curd in thick curry
-Bean curd in soy bean soup
-Stir-fried vegetable in soy bean sauce
-Spicy mushroom salad
-Bean curd yellow curry
-Stir-fried asparagus with crispy pork
-Pan-fried Seabass with lemongrass, garlic & chili
-Stir-fried chicken with fresh chili
-Filet of Seabass in green curry
-Spicy chicken soup in coconut milk
-Spicy anchovy, chicken & crispy pork salad
-Chicken with cashew nuts
-Steamed egg with tomatoes and garlic
-Squid with curry powder
-Sun dried shrimp spice-dip with vegetables
-Salad with pork sausage
-Stir-fried pork with basil leaves & eggplant
-Bean curd with minced pork
-Sea food fried rice
-Fried fish fillet in red curry
-Deep fried fish spicy salad
-Stir-fried chicken with bamboo shoots in chili paste
-Bean curd and seaweed soup
-Bake squid with glass noodle
-Stir-fried sausages with oyster sauce
-Fried rice with egg and kale
-Mango salad with crispy fish
-Stir-fried spicy sour sausage
-Vietnamese pancake soup
-Mango salad with shrimp
-Fish ball in red curry
-Spicy mango dip and crispy catfish
-Stir-fried bean curd
-Dauk kae-flower stuffed with minced shrimp and pork
-Shark fin soup
-Chicken, crispy fish & pork salad
-Crispy fried squid
-Fried fish chili curry
-Pork spare ribs in thick curry
-Stir-fried cabbage, broccoli and carrots with pork
-Mackerel Fish in dried curry

And although I stuck to the delicious fresh fruits-- including some I had never had before-- for dessert, Roland tried everything-- and liked most of it. Here are some of the desserts over the course of the month (plus ice cream):
-Pandanus flavored taro in sweetened coconut milk
-Apple Salad
-Rainbow jelly
-Chinese dumplings, filled with minced bean
-Sweetened white potato in coconut milk
-Dates in syrup
-Sweetened tapioca in coconut milk & sesame seeds
-Pandanus rice and Thai melon in sweetened coconut
-Steamed coconut pudding
-Taro custard
-Palm fruit in syrup
-Sweetened taro
-Palm fruit in syrup
-Mixed fruit compote
-Mock Fruits
-Two-tone layer cake
-Steamed tapioca cake
-Candied banana
-Coconut jelly
-Grass jelly and palm fruit in syrup with crushed ice
-Colorful Thai desserts
-Tapioca pearl in sweetened coconut and longan
-Black glutinous rice pudding with taro
-Coffee jelly
-Mock fruits jelly
-Sweetened tapioca with corn kernels & young coconut
-Sweetened water chestnut with coconut flavor
-Potato in palm sugar syrup
-Sweetened black beans in coconut milk
-Water chestnut, palmfruit & lentils in syrup
-Sweet tapioca & coconut with pandanus flavor
-Fruit juice jelly
-Sweetened tapioca
-Fruits jelly
-Sweet-mixed banana with coconut
-Sticky rice with custard topping
-Tapioca & pumpkin in coconut milk
-Black bean jelly
-Guava salad
-Fruit salad Thai style
-Coconut balls in coconut milk
-Glutinous rice fingers
-Job’s tears in sweetened coconut syrup
-Job’s tears with lotus seeds in sweetened coconut syrup
-Sweetened Ruby chestnut in coconut milk
-Sweetened pumpkin in coconut milk
-Sweet steamed pumpkin
-Sweet steamed banana
-Ruby in syrup
-Sweetened banana in coconut milk
-Jackfruit in syrup
-Green tea jelly
-Sticky rice topping with sugar & coconut
-Traditional Thai dessert with ice & syrup
-Chamomile jelly
-Watermelon jelly
-Rambutan in syrup
-Palm sugar rice balls
-Traditional Thai dessert stuffed sweet coconut
-Steamed melon cake
-Pineapple juice jelly
-Glutinous rice finger
-Mango sherbet
-Pandanus coconut jelly
-Sweetened tapioca in coconut milk
-Three colors rice balls
-Basil seeds jelly
-Black glutinous rice pudding with taro and coconut milk
-Rice balls with poached egg in coconut milk
-Taro balls in coconut milk
-Rice balls with young coconut flesh
-Mock ark shells in coconut cream
-Corn pudding
-Rice pudding with longan
-Mung beans pudding
-Sweetened hornnut in coconut milk
-Longan jelly
-Steamed butterfly pea cake
-Steamed pandanus tapioca pearl cake
-Steamed taro cake
-Sweet golden net
-Sweetened pumpkin
-Taro custard
-Sweetened taro with coconut flavor
-Sweet potato in coconut milk
-Sweetened sticky rice in bamboo
-Sweetened Durian with sticky rice
-Coconut custard
-Sweetened palm fruit with coconut flavor
-Rice balls in coconut milk
-Wild mangosteen in syrup
-Carrot custard
-Sweet soft sticky rice
-Mung bean Thai custard
-Steamed coconut milk cake
-Glutinous rice fingers in coconut cream
-Rice pudding with longan
-Mung beans cake
-Pineapple in syrup
-Custard Salee fruit
-"Five Thai Treats" in coconut milk
-Taro, potato & pumpkin in coconut milk
-Tapioca pearls in coconut cream
-Pandanus fingers & Thai melon with crushed ice
-Sweetened tapioca pearl with corn kernels
-Steamed sweetened coconut milk with water chestnut
-Steamed tapioca pearl
-Sticky rice pudding with longon
-Wood Apple (Kathorn) in syrup with crushed ice
-Mangl Mangluck Jelly


UPDATE: July, 2009

I found the new Bussarucum, way down Suhkumvit and then up Thong Lo. It wasn't hard to find at all. It's in the back of a Chinese restaurant owned by the same folks. They still have the all-you-can eat buffet lunch for about $7 and it's pretty good. I couldn't not try it again but... I'll be sticking with Rasayana here on out.



UPDATE: November, 2011

Last trip to Bangkok I pretty much ate all my meals at Rasayana, which is both delicious and healthy and has a peaceful vibe. But it's far from where I stay. Had Bussarucum been back in the old neighborhood, I can tell you for 100% I would have eaten there a few times at least. And today I got an e-mail from them telling me that they HAVE moved back to the old neighborhood. I must have eaten in this restaurant in half a dozen locations over the years. But now I can't wait to go back. The new address is 1 Sri Wiang Road (off Soi Pramuan, which is between Silom and Sathorn). It's perfect for walking from where we stay on the river. And here's the map:

North Carolina's Green Narrows is one of the finest pieces of white water in the U.S. So why would anyone want to run it in a kayak? With apologies to George Mallory, because it's there. Recently pro kayaker David Fusilli did just that, taking his long and more ponderous boat into a stretch of the river that is meant for something short, fast and agile. The results can be seen below.

Demshitz sea kayaking the Green River narrows from David Fusilli on Vimeo.

Just when you though that the Floyd Landis case couldn't get any stranger, things took a turn for the worse today. You can read all the sordid details over at ESPN.com.

In a nutshell, the doping committee asked former three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond to testify regarding a conversation that he and Landis had last August in which LeMond alleges that Landis all but admitted that he doped. Those allegations alone would probably draw a few headlines, but then the story takes a turn for the worse, as it was revealed in court that Landis' former teammate and close friend Will Geoghegan, who had been helping him with his defense, called LeMond the night before and made a threatening phone call. The tale continues to spiral down from there with the threat involving hints at sexual abuse that occured in LeMonds past, and Landis distancing himself from Geoghegan personally and professionally.

This story comes on the heels of Landis claiming that officials tried to cut a deal if he would provide information against Lance Armstrong that would implicate his use of performance enhancing drugs during his string of seven Tour wins. Add to that the stories of impropriety in the testing labs in France, months of "did he or didn't he" speculation, and a bitter rivarly between LeMond and Armstrong, and you've got one crazy story.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out. The question is, should I just wait for the ABC Movie of the Week version?

Stewart Anderson is a doctor, who also just so happens to have have hiked the length of thePacific Crest Trail. Along the way, he began to think about all the injuries that can occur on such a hike and came up with the idea of creating the The Thru-Hiker's Medical Guide.

This helpful site has all kinds of great stuff to think about before you set out this Summer on the PCT or the AT. He covers things as simple as blisters on your feet (all too common on these hikes) to fractured bones, tendentious, and the dreaded "Hiker's Belly". This is definitely a good read for anyone planning a multi-day hike. There are some good tips and information that may make your trip a lot better.

Thanks to this one goes out to The Goat.

Well, it seems like it's been awhile since I posted on a new episode of The Rest of Everest but Jon is back to work on new regular episodes, and as a result Episode 42: A Day In The Life is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Ok, so it was ready on Wednesday at it's regular time, but I was out of town, had no Internet, and was expected to actually do real work for a change. Anyway, in this episode you'll get to learn far more than you ever wanted to about the toilet situation on Everest. You'll get the scoop on toilet tents, Sherpa ingenuity, and the incredible view of the mountain you'll have while "doing your business."

As always, you can get the episodes from the Rest of Everest website or subscribe to it directly in iTunes. I for one am glad to see a return to the regular program, even while I can't wait to see the Tibet 2007 videos. Patience is a virtue, good things come to those who wait, blah blah blah...

This is what I ended up with when I tried to pick up some local items from the hotel's breakfast spread this morning. That glob in the foreground was actually the best of them all. The sign said that it was a "Beijing pancake," or a jian bing, and was basically a griddle-fried mishmash of both crunchy and soft dough. I need to remember to wear my dirty clothes down to the dining room tomorrow though; I came back smelling like grease and had to take another shower before heading out for meetings later in the day.

I'm not intentionally trying to go back to places in Austin from a long time ago. This just happened to be the venue for dinner tonight. And the funny thing was that I had pretty much the same thoughts tonight as I did the last time that I was here: the place was in the same genre as Morton's, the lighting was very dark, and it was darned cold in there. It is an appropriate place for a business dinner though.

Now that the majority of the teams have hit the ice down in Antarctica, things are starting to get very busy indeed. Weather continues to be an issue of course, but most of explorers are now trying to find a groove and get into a rhythm that involves skiing (and in some cases biking!) on the frozen expanse of the coldest, highest and driest desert in the world.

One of the biggest stories of the day is Richard Parks restarting his attempt at the speed record for skiing from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole. You may recall that parks set out on that quest last week only to find that the high winds and copious amounts of soft powder were making it impossible for him to make good time. In just a few days he was already falling off the pace, so he elected to return to Hercules and wait for a better weather window to relaunch. That window is now open apparently, as he'll start his second attempt today. Parks arrived back at his starting point on Tuesday, then took a rest day yesterday, ahead of his restart this morning. He now has 23 days to try to reach the South Pole and the clock is ticking.

The other story that came out yesterday was the evacuation of Eric Phillips, who was a the polar guide for one of the teams taking part in the 2013 South Pole Allied Challenge. Phillips was apparently suffering from altitude sickness after the teams were flown to the 87th degree prior to the start of their race to the Pole. Apparently he had fluid in his lungs, so they made the wise choice to fly him back to camp for an assessment. If he responds well to treatment and shows signs of improvement, he may rejoin the team in a day or two.

Elsewhere, Daniel Burton celebrated his 50th birthday out on the ice yesterday. He is attempting to ride his bike to the South Pole and so far things aren't going particularly well. He spent 10.5 hours on the move but covered just 6.5 miles (10.4 km), well below what he had hoped for. He does say that the slope he has been climbing since leaving Hercules Inlet is starting to get less severe and the snow is getting harder, both of which bode well for his plans. Hopefully he'll be able to pick up speed soon, because at his current pace he's traveling about half the speed of the skiers. That means he'll have a very long trip to the Pole, if he can reach it at all. I give him high marks for determination however, as he has refused to put his bike on his sled and ski any distance, which is in contrast to another explorer who is attempting to bike to the South Pole as well.

Australian kite skier Geoff Wilson managed to catch the wind today and made good progress in the process. He says that by late afternoon he had knocked of about 40 km (24 miles) before the breezes dissipated once again. The forecasts call for better winds in the next few days, so he hopes to capitalize on them and cover more ground.

Chris and Marty Fagan seem to have developed a good rhythm and are already making great progress on their attempt to ski to the South Pole. The husband and wife team are already just 540 miles (870 km) from the Pole, which sounds like a lot but is actually a good number considering the number of days they've been skiing. They're knocking off a steady 11-12 miles (17-19 km) per day as they make solid progress toward their goal.

Finally, the Willis Resilience team has actually reached the South Pole, although not on foot. This expedition started with a driving tour of the Antarctic that allows them to conduct scientific research of the impact of climate change on the continent. They're also collecting ice core samples as they go, so that they can be examined by researchers back home after the expedition wraps up. After being out on the ice for about a week, the team has already driven 1790 km (1112 miles) as they cross Antarctica. In a few weeks however, Parker Liautaud and Doug Stoup will return to the Pole on skis as well.

That's all for today. More to come soon I'm sure.

Chongqing: bring a gas mask

The first time I was in Delhi, in 1970, the air was so unbelievably filthy that I got out of town as fast as I could. Like many cities-- Los Angeles and Bangkok being two good examples-- Delhi is a lot cleaner now. But not so much, apparently, as I thought it was when I was there last year. According to the World Bank in 2004 it still had the second worst air pollution of any city in the world. Numero uno was Cairo. Here's the list of the 20 most polluted:

Cairo
Delhi
Calcutta
Tianjin
Chongqing
Lucknow
Kanpur
Jakarta
Shenyang
Zhengzhou
Jinan
Lanzhou
Beijing
Taiyuan
Chengdu
Ahmadabad
Anshan
Wuhan
Bangkok
Nanchang

Twelve are in China and five are in India. I'm finishing up on Robyn Meredith's NY Times best selling book on the economic changes in India and China in the last two decades, The Elephant And The Dragon and she has a lot to say about the overwhelming pollution in both countries.

Nothing can prepare visitors for the pollution in China... One of the worst places to breathe on the planet is the world's biggest city: Chongqing, China, with a population of 30 million people counting the exurbs, about the same number of people as live in the entire state of California. There the New China coexists with the Old China: skyscrapers and construction sites decorate downtown, but scrawny bong-bong men wait for work on street corners. Bong-bong men are paid sixty cents an hour to ferry heavy loads-- from building materials to groceries-- up and down the city's hilly streets using bamboo poles slung over their shoulders. They must have powerful lungs, not just strong legs: the city is half dark most days. Sunlight barely reaches the ground, dimmed by thick, gray smog. Skyscrapers just three blocks away are mere outlines because of air pollution. Emerging from the inside of a building onto the streets prompts one's eyes to water. The air is filthy but that is not all. The raw sewage produced by 30 million people-- 30 million-- is dumped straight into the Yangtze River as it flows past. The countryside nearby is not the place to go for fresh air: there you notice that the leaves of trees-- along with everything else-- are coated with black dust from the coal mines and factories in the region. More acid rain falls on Chongqing than anywhere else on earth.

...Nearly a third of China's rivers are so polluted that they aren't even fit for agriculture or industrial use, according to Chinese government statistics. Village doctors have documented increased cancer rates near polluting factories and chemical plants. Untreated waste water dumped into China's famed Yangtse River is killing marine life and turning its water "cancerous," according to Xinhua, the state-controlled media outlet.

...Lack of enforcement of environmental laws is also a big problem in India. Its capital city, Delhi, used to have pollution levels ten times higher than the nation's legal limit, mostly because of the high-pollution taxis, trucks and buses on its roads. Delhi has the world's worst air pollution in 2002, but managed to clean up its filthy air after being taken to task by India's Supreme Court. The overhaul began in 1997. Some steps were long overdue: the city finally banned lead gas. However belatedly, the city reduced pollution from Delhi's power plants by installing scrubber to clean up smokestack emissions and requiring them to burn cleaner coal. It banished motorized rickshaws and buses built before 1990 from the roads. In 1998, the court required all city buses to run on compressed natural gas (CNG)-- a cleaner fuel than gasoline-- by 2001... Just 10 percent of sewage is treated in India, with the rest dumped into waterways, along with industrial pollution. India's rivers-- even the holy Ganges-- have become sewers.

I still remember leaving a restaurant in one town after dinner and seeing some kids behind it filling up the "bottled water" from a garden hose.

This was a completely random find. We were out of dinner options, and were actually on our way to getting some Teochew porridge down the street. But then we came across this place, and figured that we might as well give it a try (22A Havelock Road #01-14, 8247-0444). I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, especially since their prawns were super fresh, and the sauces worked for me. Now, it wasn't anything spectacular either (and I don't eat this stuff enough to know the difference between the many other shops around town these days), but I'm still glad that we ate here. One of these days, someone is going to have to teach me the tricks behind mastering that slippery inverted grill.

Photo © Ashley Gilbertson-All Rights Reserved
The announcement that the VII Photo Agency launched VII The Magazine has already been reported and blogged about for a few days already. The magazine is a syndicated online publication with photo stories and interviews with VII photographers.

The beta version of VII The Magazine is presented in the Herald Scotland newspaper, and in Lens Culture.

The first issue of the magazine features multimedia slideshows of projects by several VII photographers, as well as interviews with Jessica Dimmock and Ashley Gilbertson about their projects featured on the site.

I was particularly interested in Ashley Gilbertson's interview, and struck by one of his statements:

"If you show me one more picture of a soldier kicking in a door, I'm going to blow my head off."

I sense Ashley speaks for, not only war photographers, but for many of the sentient public who's been subjected to repetitive and unimaginative visual (and intellectual) presentations of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who's had (if they're anything like me) enough of the same stereotypical coverage which passes for cutting edge reporting in our media. I call it the stagnation of war photography...the same scenes over and over, perhaps from different angles...and with no back story. In fact, if I didn't read the captions beneath these images, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was in Iraq or in Afghanistan...or whether they'd been made yesterday or a year ago. Stagnation.

Ashley's powerful and poignant photo essay The Shrine Down The Hall, which shows some of the empty bedrooms of the over 5000 U.S. military personnel killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, rammed home the horrors of war much more effectively than seeing (and hearing) yet another photo essay by a gung-ho war photographer following US soldiers in an Afghani village, rounding up "Taliban" members (or whatever the caption writer decides they are), covering their heads with potato sacks while pointing guns at terrified women.

We need to see more work like Ashley Gilbertson's and much less of the kicking of Afghan or Iraqi doors....please.

This weekend I paid my first visit to The Wonderful Barn near Lexlip in County Kildare, and as you can see from the image the name does do it justice! This bizzare construction was built in 1743. The work was commissioned by Katherine Connolly, widow of William 'Speaker' Connolly. He had made his fortune from land transfers, following the confiscations by the Crown of lands belonging to supporters of James II after the Williamite War ended. He had the first Palladian Mansion built in Ireland - Castletown House near Celbridge in County Kildare.

William Connolly died in 1729 and was said to be the wealthiest man in Ireland at the time of his death, leaving Katherine as his widow. She had The Wonderful Barn constructed in 1743 not only as a functional grain store, but as an unusual architectural feature which undoubtedly catches the eye. It is said that she also had philanthropic motivations for constructing this complex building. 


There had been a severe famine in Ireland in 1740-41, she kept the local people employed working on projects like The Wonderful Barn and the 42 metre tall Connolly Folly which she had constructed in 1741. 

The Wonderful Barn itself stands approximately 22 metres in height, and has a tapering cone, circled by a cantilevered staircase with a crow’s nest viewing gallery.
The Wonderful Barn is certainly worth a trip out, and is a fine (and unusual) setting for a stroll. There are a number of allotments on the lands today, the site itself is reasonably easy to access with paths running around the main features. To get there follow the Celbridge Road out of Lexlip, when you pass a large housing estate on the outskirts of Lexlip called Elton Court on your right hand side drive on around 50m and the gate leading  into The Wonderful Barn will be on your right.

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath
 

  

 

There are few places on Earth as remote and challenging as the Karakorum. Much of the area is so far away from civilization that is largely remains unexplored even today. Which is why I found this article over at K2Climb.net so interesting. It tells the tale of Michael Beek, a German trekker, who has spent the better part of 35 years exploring the Karakorum. During that time, he has come to know the people that inhabit the area and much of it's landscape.

However, last July Michael decided to get off the well worn trekking paths and head into areas that were far less traveled. Along the way he claims to have viewed K2's North West face from a location that no other westerner has ever seen it, and had the honor to name three mountains and two mountain passes.

At times, he was in such remote areas that border's between countries became indistinct and he had to rely less on the sketchy maps that he had with him and more on satellite images and the help of Pakistani guides.

Beeks sems to exhibit the spirit of adventure. He looks for and finds all kinds of challenges in his exploration, and certainly isn't afraid to get out into some remote areas, isolated from human contact. It sounds like a great adventure to me, and I'd love to hear more about his expedition.