30+ at 30

What a trip, man, what a trip. I would never have dreamed that it would turn out this way. 122 days of being on the road, of resting in one place for five nights, max, and then moving on. Throughout it all, I kept my sanity and I kept my thread. The great eats I had, and got to chronicle, provided an ever-changing yet still stable anchor for my time with no home.

And the adventures, well, they just piled up. A calm and tranquil temple garden in Kyoto. A sunrise, slow and steady, seen from a volcano top in Bali. A weekend trip to the birthplace of the Malaysian state, Melaka. A night on the open grasslands in Inner Mongolia, just me and Max and the sheep. A float in the magical and astringent Dead Sea. A fantastic, loving, and one-of-a-kind wedding in southern Turkey. A balloon ride to the heavens and back in Cappadocia. A trip to days of Jewishness past in Krakow and southern Poland. A celebration of sport and of beer and of the outdoors with 1,000 friends in Munich. A loss of sight to bring out a stronger sense of taste at a dunkelrestaurant in Berlin. A trip to a community striking out on its own in Christiania. A bike ride that couldn't be beat up and down the canals in Amsterdam. And a short but sweet exploration of Helsinki, land of so much reindeer meat.

And so we are here, blog post number three hundred and sixteen, the last of them for this grand adventure. The blog waxed and waned, with faulty Internet connections overcome throughout. China managed to put a three week delay on the blog that never went away, but that just adds to the nostalgia of each post, I think. Thanks so much to the people that hosted me, that gave me recommendations, that traveled with me. And thanks so much to all of you for reading and for sharing my trip with me.

Now, I managed, barely, to get past 30 countries visited just past the age of thirty (see full list below). However, I don't want to get so far behind, comparatively, next time.

So, time to plan the next trip! Where to?

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Before the trip

USA

Canada

Mexico

Nicaragua

Chile

Argentina

Cuba

Aruba

Spain

France

England

Ireland

Germany

Switzerland

Italy

India

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Vietnam

Singapore

Cambodia

Hong Kong

On this trip

Japan

Indonesia

Singapore (again)

Malaysia

China

Turkey

Israel

Germany (again)

Poland

Czech Republic

Denmark

The Netherlands

Finland

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Bevy of beards, part four

And the last installment of the Track My Beard feature, with faces from Copenhagen and Helsinki. Mysteriously, I made it through Amsterdam without a single beard shot!

Getting cultured with Calder at the Louisiana, July 23, 2010.

Freezing the beard at the Ice Bar, July 24, 2010.

Singing with the pipe organ in a city park in Helsinki, July 31, 2010.

Bevy of beards, part three

So much beard, so little time. Will my beard beat my blog back to the States?

Admiring the Wawel Castle in Krakow, July 9, 2010.

Supporting transparency in government at the Reichstag, July 16, 2010.

Bevy of beards, part two

More Turkish beards!

Beard, Ottoman-style, at the Topkapi Palace balcony in Istanbul, June 20, 2010.

Beard enjoying a lovely waterfall, June 25, 2010.

Beard taking in the ocean from a castle on an island, June 26, 2010.

Beard soaring 4,000 feet above ground, July 1, 2010.

A theme song for the What's That blog empire?

So, there's a fish head lying on the table, and the meal is coming to a close. Sounds like time to record a jingle, right?

With my dad in the lead, we filmed a couple of takes and come up with this potential theme song for the blog.

Bevy of beards, part one

There's been no shortage of beard recently.

The beard admiring the excellent view from the Istanbul Modern, June 11, 2010.

The beard glowing in the lights of the festival in Jerusalem, June 16, 2010.

The beard taking in the Dead Sea and its tributaries, June 18, 2010.

Beard on the Bosphorus

Posts are catching up from the big China blackout. In the meantime, here's a beard shot from a fun trip on a ferry across the Bosphorus.

Beard overload!

With so many weeks gone, we'll have to add a couple of Track My Beard shots to the flipbook. They also provide a sneak preview of some of the China posts to come. Last one will stay on the right page of the blog, the rest are for posterity!

Early in Shanghai, on May 20, this is me on the Bund in front of one of the ubiquitous Expo advertisements.

At Zhouzhuang, the water town, on May 24, in front of Ruyi Pagoda.

Bearded in Inner Mongolia, this is me on May 30 with the grasslands.

Back in Beijing, on June 3, next to a very large bell in the Bell Tower.

And, finally, in Beijing on June 7, hanging out with a dragon stellae in the Lama Temple.

And we're back, with some BIG NEWS!

Well, back to the land of unfiltered internet! Though this space was empty, there were adventures had, and blog posts written. So, in addition to the final 13 Singapore posts, over the next few days there will be stories of:

-- Multiple Sichuan meals, most ending in tears and numb tongues

-- Lots of steamed fish, covered in different ways but always delicious

-- A fantastic day-long walk on the Great Wall

-- A whole week just focused on eating and on cooking

-- A journey to the north, visiting Russian traders and Mongolian herders

-- And so much more, more than 50 posts in total on the Chinese adventures

And! Some! Big! NEWS! While we were dark, a communique from the States reached me. Surprise of all surprises, a spot opened up in my graduate school program and I am in! Wow. Wow. Wow. Simply delighted. To learn more about the specifics of what I'll be doing for the next three years come this fall, go here: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/academics/doctorate/edld/index.html.

Going dark, just temporarily...

Dearest blog readers and posterity itself:

The good news is that I've made it safely to China, first stop Shanghai. The bad news is that my connection to my blog is, well, nonexistent. So, we will be going dark here at What's That? I Want To Eat It! for the next couple of weeks until I get to Turkey and an unfiltered internet connection.

Some things you have to look forward to:

-- The final 13 posts from Singapore, including some more tremendous eating!

-- Some guaranteed good eating posts from Shanghai!

-- Some good-as-guaranteed stories of culinary and non-culinary exploits in Beijing, Ha'erbin, and places to be named later!

In the meantime, how about some friendly creative competition? Should you have some inspiration, feel free to leave a poem in comments, on any topic. When I can connect back to my blog in Turkey, I'll read them through and laugh, and cry, and be moved. I'll also pick the one that stands out to me (Apples To Apples rules, meaning, I may make the call very idiosyncratically) and that person will get a trip-related commendation.

Of course, I can be reached via email in the intervening weeks.

Until June 9th!

Your traveling correspondent

A real lion's mane

Update to the Beard Tracker!

This shot was taken near the historic Merlion in downtown Singapore. Half merman, half lion, and eternally spitting into Marina Bay.

Taken May 14, 2010.

First Singapore beard!

Catching up after the illness...

Here's me on a recent trip to see a lot of birds, taken May 11, 2010, in the western part of Singapore.

Friendly PSA: Do NOT eat at Fly Cafe in Ubud

Just a quick and slightly hilarious note: I've been found!

A random comment on one of my threads is as follows:

"1 comments:

fly cafe said...

Check out Fly Café in Ubud. The diverse menu of local, international and vegetarian cuisine is the best value around: http://www.fly-cafe.com

May 10, 2010 3:21 AM"

I encourage a full force boycott of these folks so they learn some boundaries of advertising. I mean, appropriating the comment thread of a personal blog! What's next.......

New (delayed) beard

It's finally starting to fill in and I am feeling a bit more normal. But it's only month 1 so who knows where we will go from here!

Catch this one quick, new beard coming soon.

April 30, 2010: in and around some rice fields of Ubud.

New beard!

Well, this whole start from scratch thing is finally starting to pay off.

First, here's shot 2 of the beardtracker that was from April 11, in a bullet train in Japan:

And, here's the fresh-ish shot, from April 20, at my bungalow in Ubud:

New feature: Track My Beard

By popular demand and reader suggestion (thanks Carolyn!) I am adding a new tracker on the right side of the blog. There, you'll find at-least-weekly updates on the status of my newly growing beard. Starting from a clean slate, we will see where we end up!

Oh, and to truly tip my hat to Carolyn, here is her comment in its entirety:

"also, you should track your daily hair growth. you can do it amelie-garden-gnome style, except with, you know, your head."

Additional suggestions always welcomed!

How I'll get all the way around

A couple of blogs posts in and a basic question remains unanswered: "Where am I headed?" There's a rough sketch of countries pretty likely to be hit. Here's the flight plan:

Early April: Japan

Mid April: Bali, Indonesia

Early May: Singapore

Mid May: China

Early June: Turkey

Mid June: Israel

Late June: Back to Turkey

Early July: Berlin, Germany

Several other countries are likely probables, including Malaysia, Denmark, Sweden, and Morocco.

This plan provides the backdrop for the trip. However, I am open to the winds shifting and will follow them where they want to take me...

Finally, I'll update the Where I've Been and Where I'm Going text on the right hand side as destinations appear on the radar. The Where I've Been will be more detailed, listing the places within each country visited.