We may not be on the road at the moment, living as we do in the great comforts of our San Francisco apartment. There are times, though, when we take a bit of time away from our busy schedules to poor over maps and travel guides, dreaming of the next trip. In anticipation of that happening, here’s a little write-up on eight places we’re currently drooling over. If you know of places that are equally awesome, do by all means let us know!

1) Romania

Allow me to casually drop one name on you: Transylvania. If you’re anything like us, that ought to evoke images of fortified castles sitting among dark and foreboding mountains; backwards villages where garlic-and-pitchfork toting locals are going about their days, always with one eye on the local lord and his late-night habits. Located in the Carpathian mountain range, this province was recently described to me as ‘what the Alps were like 100 years ago’. Apart from Transylvania, Romania also has a ton of interesting culture and sights, and it’s generally a lot cheaper than the rest of Europe. Spring in Bucharest, anyone?

Travel itch factor: 7 pants out of 10.

2) Cadiz, Spain

Researchers recently found the lost city of Atlantis here. Heard that before? Well this time it may actually be true. Using ground radar and various other technological magic, a team from the University of Hartford, Connecticut, say that they’ve found the remains of a concentric cityscape, buried underneath a sun-baked mudflat. There is various evidence that support the idea that this could be the city described by Plato 2,600 years ago. I don’t know about you, but I think it would be totally great to go there and… put a spade in the ground and see what comes up? Kick around the mudflat and dream a little bit? I don’t know about you, but I’d totally love getting my inner Indiana Jones on.

Travel itch factor: 9 pants out of 10.

3) Serbia

For many people, the very word ‘Serbia’ has taken on a pretty negative sound, one that evokes memories of wars and troubles dating back to the painful break-up of Yugoslavia in the early nineties. Things are far better there now though. The nation has opened up a fair bit to the EU and the wider world around them. This is probably the perfect time to visit – get in before everyone else does (I remain undeterred by rumors of hordes of Slovenian tourists frequenting the joint). Another reason to go there would be to discover another branch of the seatofourpants family tree – apparently wifey is a quarter Serb. I can’t help but wonder what adventures a quest to rediscover long lost family would lead us to.

Serbia gets 6 pants out of 10, with potential for an upgrade once we’ve done our homework.

4) The Aral Sea, Uzbekistan

Oh boy. A visit to this ecological disaster zone would definitely have to be filed under ‘adventure travel’ rather than sunbathing or relaxing. The lake is located in Qaraqalpakistan (one of the coolest place names in the universe), a remote region of Uzbekistan (which is a remote region of Central Asia), and it would be a bit of a hike to get to its shores. Or rather, once you reach the towns around the lake shore, there are still 8 hours of dried up sea bed to traverse before you’re actually at the lake. This because extremely shoddy irrigation work by the Soviet Union during the last century, irrigation that diverted all the water from the rivers that fed the Aral. The result? One of the world’s worst eco disasters. Personally, I want to go there to take pictures of the many ships that now sit uselessly on the sea floor, but this could probably end up being one of those destinations where the journey there is worth at least as much as the ultimate destination. Oh and the country lies on the Silk Route. Oh and Samarkand, one of the three corners of the world is there. Count me in.

Travel itch factor: 8 pants out of 10.

(Photo: Steve Evans)

5) Mexico City, Mexico

Americans (that’d be us) tend to regard the great nation south of the border with more than a bit of suspicion. The motives are no doubt colored by violent movies and an almost exclusively negative news flow (and perhaps by the odd drunken afternoon raid into the lugubrious streets of Tijuana). As someone who has managed to (occasionally) find interesting sides to Tijuana, I can’t wait to see what Mexico City has to offer. No matter what method you use to count, it is one of the absolutely biggest cities on earth, populated by far more than 20 million people. I’d love to explore what this mega city has to offer in terms of culture, food and sights – the DF has a few of those, being built upon the ruins of at least a couple of ancient empires as well as having a half millennium of colonial history to fall back on.

Travel itch factor: I’ll give it 7 pants out of 10.

6) Mustang, Nepal

We’ve stood on the very threshold of this ancient Tibetan city state once before (where the above picture was taken), and I guess we won’t be completely satisfied until we’ve cleared that Kagbeni checkpoint and ventured into the kingdom itself. At this point in time, Mustang is probably more Tibet than Tibet itself, and a road that actually would allow jeeps to enter have yet to be completed. Extreme remoteness combined with fees and the legal obligation to bring a liaison officer along keeps mass tourism at bay. And if Mustang seems to be too exploited there’s also the similarly alluring Dolpo region to explore to the west. A surrounding flock of 8000m peaks, all-world scenery and dahl bhat tarkari makes this one of my personal favorite targets.

Mustang gets 9 pants out of 10.

7) Ethiopia, Africa

Ethiopia. I can almost hear the guffaw and incredulous head-shakes over this one. Why would anyone want to go to that strife-torn, landlocked slab of hunger catastrophe waiting to happen? True, things may not be completely stable in some parts of this country, but a healthy dose of caution has to be one of the tools in any traveler’s toolbox. Lots of cons, so what about the pros? Well let’s see. The oldest human-like creatures ever found were discovered in these highlands, making it the cradle of humanity. In other words, it has a 3 million year history of human habitation. It has villages and towns that have very little connection to the outside world – a fellow traveler recently told me about a town in a far-flung corner where the men venture outside the walls of their city to feed a pack of hyenas every night. Remarkable? Yes even more so when you learn that they do it by approaching the murderous beasts with raw meat hanging from their mouths. The hyenas seem to go along with this, and for the most part they don’t eat the people feeding them. Yeah, I’d go there. No I wouldn’t participate in the feeding. I’m sure there’s a sign that says ‘don’t feed the animals’ somewhere. The cautious traveler knows that it’s best to heed all signs.

Travel itch factor: A steady 7 out of 10.

Salar de Uyni, Bolivia

Perhaps a romp upon the world’s largest salt flat doesn’t sound exciting or fun to you, but that could be because you haven’t seen the pictures. You may have heard of the ice hotel, well, here they have a hotel made out of salt – not because for gimmicky tourism, but because of a total lack of other building materials. Throw in a helping of sublime photo ops and yes, I can see myself traveling to this place. If this doesn’t sound convincing, perhaps coupling this with a visit to the nearby Atacama desert will help, because who wouldn’t want to check out a place where it has rained only once since 1570 (in 1971 to be exact).

This camera-friendly destination gets a solid 8 out of 10 on the seatofourpants travel itch scale (one extra point for the hundreds of nearby destinations we’re also drooling over).

(Photo: NASA)

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One post totally broke that mold – to today’s date it is the most viewed and commented post on this site. No, it isn’t an article we wrote for CNN Asia’s lifestyle page. Nope, not the ‘a day in London’ thing that spent 24 hours on the front page of BBC.com. It is a post about something that apparently has touched a lot of people, people who have then gone on to search out similar experiences on the net: an encounter with a fortune teller.

Apparently there exists world-wide, traveling band of fortune tellers, all of them Sikh (or claiming to be), all of them going by the nom-du-guerre of ‘Yogi Singh’ (Teacher Lion), each and all using the same mode of operations on a world-wide scale. I’ve met two of them – one in Mcleod Ganj and one in Delhi’s Connaught Place. They wore identical outfits and they approached me in the same manner. Other travelers have reported the same encounters, all over the world.

Typically, they will approach you by saying something like ‘You have a lucky face!’ or ‘This day is your lucky day!’ and give you a sunny smile and a compliment. They will then offer to tell your fortune for a very modest price.

Your incarnation of Yogi Singh will then sit down with you and write down a few notes on a paper that you can’t see. He will then go on to show his ‘powers’ by asking you a few questions: “what are your favorite flowers” and “name a number between one and five” appear to be the most popular ones.

The Oracle Himself (or one of him)

Did you pick roses as your flower? The number three? Apparently most people do. I know I did. The fortune teller will then show you a note that says ‘roses’ and the number three. Now, one could argue that he could have a ton of notes stashed in his pockets, each with flower names and numbers, but I’m not here to pass judgment on the efficacy of the Yogi Singh’s of the world. I’m just saying.

After this dazzling show, the fortune teller will ask you to write down a few other things, like the name of a woman that hurt you, an ex girlfriend, or any fact that he possibly can’t know about beforehand. You are told to roll the note up into a little ball and to hang on to it. The fortune teller will then do some mumbo jumbo, like have you count people on an old picture (“these are my masters at the special college. How many people do you see on the picture”). This is where I guess a deft stage magician could do something to switch out the notes and read them, but again – not passing judgment. Just sayin’.

To your amazement, Yogi Singh will then write down exactly what you had written in your crumpled up note, and you will very likely feel amazed beyond belief. He will also tell you a few other things, such as your life expectancy, about a curse that lies upon you and of some bad habits that have kept you from your ultimate success. This is when the pitch comes in: for a lot of money, this bona fide master of mysteries can pray for your fortune, 22 days in a row (sacrificing perfume, soap, incense and spices). His prayers would alter destiny, and success for life would presumably be mine. I think I remember him wanting 600 US dollars for this privilege. I politely declined, opting instead to donate a much more modest sum in exchange for a couple of talismans. I think I gave him three bucks for the trinkets and three for the show. It really was quite impressive. We parted as friends, and I spent days thinking about the interchange. How did he know my ex girlfriends name? Did he switch out the notes? Did he have a partner reading over my back somehow?

Whatever you think or feel about it – if you’re a victim of their exorbitant prices, or if you’re just casually stumbling upon this post – isn’t it pretty extraordinary that this brotherhood of fortune tellers exist? A secret society that follow their own rules and mysteries, traveling the globe while telling people about their supposed fates? I love it. It’s the stuff of legends, and would write a book about them if I had time. Should you be approached by one, don’t hesitate to sit down and have your fortunes told.

Just don’t give them six hundred bucks and the keys to your car.

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This new year’s celebration is way different. Of course. We live in Mariposa, still figuring out our lives. We are moving towards a more structured life, slowly. What I do think though, and this is perhaps the greatest lesson of our trip — is that we still live our lives the way we did on that day in Nepal. Anything is possible, if we just put your minds to it.

And that’s all the ranting we had for you today. If you’ve missed it, Jaime’s running her own show over at the dailybeeswax.com, while I’m trying to write a book.

Oh and the Maoists did let us back home that day. All it took was bribing a ragtag bunch of 12-year old road-blocking insurgents (at a cost of 3 USD). Good times.

"Anything is possible, Dude!"

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Living in Europe, I never really questioned these misconceptions – not out of ignorance (or arrogance), but rather because I never got around to doing it. Now, living here, I often find myself chuckling at how we used to see this country, and at how people back home still probably see it.

So, back to the guns. Here’s how it’s dealt with here: guns are around, so you might as well enjoy them.

Hence, we took Mom in law to the trap range the other day. We blasted away at clay pigeons and had an outrageous amount of fun.

Guns at their best. Truly.

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If buying two Iphones isn’t a sign of us being back in the 21^st century, I don’t know what is. The other day, Jaime flew up to San Francisco for a bit of business and came back with not one, but two of these bad boys. Needless to say we’ve had our noses pointed into our phones for a couple of days, and I’m just barely beginning to feel that the app feeding frenzy is over. Are 30 apps enough? Am I missing that one vital app that could really change our lives?

Having problems like these is another sign that we’re no longer on the road. This will not remain the case for much longer though – in a couple of days we’ll be making a move again. This time, we’ll exchange sunny Southern California for Mariposa: an old gold mining town nested in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

So, stay tuned for some mountain adventures: hikes, climbs and possibly a Mariposa beer review.

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Normally it never rains in Ladakh. As the above picture shows, the architecture and layout of the towns are simply not made to deal with precipitation. The massive rainfalls devastated the mud-brick houses, washing many of them away.

We can’t help but think and worry about the people we met there, the friends we made and the places we visited. It’s such a remote and beautiful corner of the world, and its vanishing lifestyle is so fragile and precious that a disaster like this is very likely to send the whole place reeling.

Get well soon, Ladakh. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

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Curious cop catches a bit of the action in NYC

For this cup, we’ve found ourselves touring across the US, staying with friends and squeezing in a game here and there. We were at a sports bar on Manhattan when the home team played England to a draw. We watched Germany cut Australia to shreds together with a Hoboken, NJ family. With sadness, we watched Mexico get outgunned by Argentina at a Mexican restaurant in San Diego’s Old Town.

How does watching the cup in America stack up against other places? Well, the average sports fan in the US is generally more interested and knowledgeable than I would have guessed. Sometimes, you get the odd cheer for something that’s not traditionally cheerable (an offside by the opposing team, or a nice throw by the goaltender), but that’s just charming. People are interested in the game, they like to criticize tactics and applaud great efforts.

This is a contrast to many other places – in some locations Football has been the one true source of entertainment for generations – like the other day at the Mexican cantina. People were so fired up that they roared with nervous excitement every time their team took ball possession. It’d be tempting to chalk that up to their passionate Latin heritage, but no. I’ve seen similar behavior in Sweden and Germany.

Looking forward to 2014

As for the rest of the cup, well, my team didn’t even make it, and Jaime’s has been eliminated for a week now. Still, the World Cup is just fantastic entertainment. We can’t wait to see the last games. It will be four long years before it comes along again.

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First of all, Bacon thinks we’re doing a lousy job at blogging these days. I concur. We’ve been busy. Busy celebrating our re-entry to the US, busy overcoming the hangovers from celebrating our re-entry into the US, dealing with immigration paperwork, smogging the car, watching True Blood on HBO, picking up work, doing laundry, joining a gym, chewing gum, making DMV appointments and so on. You know – all that stuff people have to do after a thirteen month trip around the world.

At this point, Bacon says “I want posts, not excuses!”. He also snarls like only a 5 ounce cloth pig with no mouth can snarl. I guess we have to bow to his wishes. To tell the truth, we’ve missed our blogging habits a lot – not only the practice of daily writing, but also the interaction with you guys, our readers.

Expect the blog posts to resume at regular intervals from now on. We have lots of stuff to tell you about, and we have a lot of fun adventures to look forward to in the near future.

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What makes the Mall stand out from the others is the fact that it is still a work in progress. New monuments, such as the World War II memorial, are still being added. It is also an active place of mourning and devotion – we found the Vietnam war memorial especially gripping: a place where people leave flags and flowers for their fallen loved ones.

Other than that, it is a pleasant, sunny expanse – the perfect place for a stroll with an ice cream in hand. If this fails to entertain you, you can always go check out the Lincoln Memorial. Isn’t Lincoln’s head just strangely Frankensteinish?

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