Perspectives of India

From the start of our travels, India's been at the top of my travel hit list - I've been so excited to experience the food, music, history, colors and everything else you read about and see in the movies! However throughout the past year, I've been warned over and over again by other travelers (and Ryan, who's been to North India before) that India can be a pretty challenging place to travel...it's noisy and hectic, and sometimes a little stinky...so I tried to mentally prepare myself before coming here.

Having been here for a few weeks now, I've realized that it's all true...yes, it's chaotic, but it's such an exciting place and is totally manageable. That could be because we've been on the road for nine months now and our perspective of "chaos" has changed,  but I think it's also because we stayed with our good friends Rob and Ishan while we were in Mumbai for the first week here, and it makes all the difference having a friend show you the ropes of a new place..especially here in India. Also, never underestimate the power of expectations!

Chaats and Chai with friends in Mumbai














After Mumbai we decided to travel through South India for the rest of our time here. We've been traveling by train, which has been an interesting experience to say the least (look out for more on this in a future post, coming soon). The first place we visited on our trip through the South was Goa...a tiny state on the West coast of India better known for their beach parties and trance music than quiet, open sand. Ryan and I were a little hesitant to come here since we just went to amazing beaches in Thailand, and because other travelers said it wasn't that great, but we needed to break up the train journey from Mumbai to Kerala, so we decided to stay for a few nights. We headed for Mandrem beach in the far North, a massive, windy, quiet stretch of Goa. Yoga and good food were everywhere in this relaxing little town, and we wish we could have stayed longer!

We've been in India now for almost three weeks, and I've realized that the culture and history of this huge country is nowhere near as simple as I initially thought. Goa, as it turns out, gained it's independence from Portugal as late as 1961...I had no idea! Portuguese influence is all over the place here, from the food, to the numerous whitewashed Catholic churches, Mediterranean-style houses and tile, and many last names and signs written in Portuguese. We were pleasantly surprised by Goa, and it confirms our theory that you should always check things out for yourself before you write it off.

A thirsty roof

Found this random shot from Yangshuo, China while cleaning out old pics from my phone. Every morning this guy appeared to be watering his roof!

Guiling Girls take on Thailand

A few weeks ago my two sisters Rebbie and Joanie came to visit Ryan and I during our last three weeks in Thailand. It was so nice being able to spend Christmas and New Years with family, and to see familiar faces halfway across the world. We've already decided this was the first of many sibling trips in the future...next time with Matt and Katelyn too!

We showed them around Chiang Mai, traveled through crazy mountain roads to spend Christmas in Pai (with a crazy speed demon bus driver!), and then headed down South for New Years to lounge on the islands of Koh Lanta and Koh Phangan. Along the way we learned how to ride scooters, got too many Thai massages and pedicures to count, fueled our love for Thai iced tea (Rebbie), Khao Soi (Ryan), and coconuts (Jenny and Joanie), and played a killer game of 3-week Rummy (Rebs was the winner!).

They both took tons of amazing pictures, which most of you probably saw on Facebook already. Here are a few of our favorites.

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Bueng Pai Farm, our guesthouse in Pai

Lanterns for Christmas (and later for New Years)

Driving around the countryside in Pai

Local street dog gets a lift (doesn't that sound like an Onion headline?!)

Beach yoga on Koh Lanta

The beautiful beach on Koh Rok

Colorful boats on Koh Phangan

Full-Moon night sunset watching on Koh Phangan

Khao Soi, Thai Tea, and Coconuts...we'll miss you Thailand!

Lost in translation - part 2

You may recall a post from a few months ago poking fun at some of the comical English signs that you see throughout Asia. Well, we've moved on from the days of "crunky nude balls", "graceful sporty times" and "popping showers" in East Asia and today bring you part 2 of funny/odd English signs in Asia, mostly from our time in SE Asia. You can check-out part 1 here.

What a great way to promote a veggie restaurant!

Love me some veggie goose!

My favorites are "yogurt juice", "old coffee" and "body shape coffee".





















Obama's running for office in Thailand? Let's hope those crazy birther people don't get wind of this! (It's actually a local whiskey brand.)

Love this!

The good part of being a foreigner...

...and the bad.

For all my start-up/business friends, here's a new way to establish differentiation - just say so.

S is pronounced SH in Indonesia. (What, did you think we would mature this year?)

Some more of the same (4th line)...

Harsh.

You can do it!

And if you smoke them on Shabbat, it's quadruple happiness!

Turning the light back on

For the past few months while in Northern Thailand, I've been doing some volunteer work with the Border Green Energy Team (BGET), an organization that installs solar and other clean energy technologies in rural villages and refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border.

When it comes to electrification, Thailand is in a pretty good place compared to its SE Asian neighbors Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, where only 13%, 24% and 55% of the populations respectively have access to electricity. In Thailand, over 99% of the population has electricity, but this still leaves about half a million people, mostly in remote rural villages, without electricity.

Most of these people use either candles or low quality kerosene lanterns for light. It's a bad deal. Compared to a typical light bulb, candles or kerosene lanterns provide over 100 times lower lighting quality. These low quality light sources are also the leading cause of burns and fires in these areas and cause indoor air pollution problems. Believe it or not, using candles and kerosene lanterns for lighting is also expensive for the amount of light provided, often costing people 10 times more per unit of light compared to what people in wealthy countries like the U.S. pay for grid power. Low quality, unsafe, expensive - just a bad deal all around.

In these rural villages, solar energy is an ideal solution because it's clean, safe, reliable, doesn't require the grid, and with the right type of financing, more affordable than lower quality alternatives. This is especially the case now with plummeting solar technology prices. Better lighting quality will also provide a better study environment for students and increased opportunities to work and earn an income.

















In 2004, the Thailand government installed 300,000 solar home systems for the off-grid population in Thailand, but unfortunately, no plan was put in place to follow-up and provide system maintenance. While solar technology is well established and very reliable in the long term (the panels come with 20-year warranties and can operate effectively for 30+ years), like many technologies, maintenance is required every now and again. Inverters need to fixed. Batteries need to be replaced every few years. This is normal, just like getting an oil change for your car a few times a year.

What happened next in Thailand should have been expected. With no post-installation follow-up plan in place, system failures started to occur, not because the panels were broken, but because basic maintenance services were not provided. Now, 7 years later, 80% of these 300,000 solar home systems have stopped working. As you can see in the photo below from a village that we visited, most of these homes have a small solar panel on the roof, but they don't benefit from clean, safe, affordable energy. Good solar technology, not producing energy - there's something wrong with this situation!

















That's where BGET comes in. They've developed a plan to turn the lights back on in these rural Thai villages. BGET is working to restore the systems that are no longer in operation by providing new batteries and controllers, and then long-term maintenance services. The villagers will pay BGET over time through a service contract with rates below what they otherwise would have to pay for the lower quality candles and kerosene lanterns. It's a true win-win, and a private sector solution that doesn't rely on unsustainable, short-term government programs.

I recently joined the BGET staff on a trip to deliver some of the new equipment to one of these villages where solar systems are being restored. Check-out more photos below.

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The village was really remote. We drove for over an hour on a dirt road that wasn't really a road and at one point had to drive through a river!
















This family is happy because their solar system is working again!

Me with the BGET team on an equipment delivery run

Solar projects in the U.S. don't need batteries because the systems are almost always connected to the grid, so dealing with batteries is new for me. Key takeaway - these things are freakin' heavy (and I had the bruises on my shoulders to prove it)!

















Pretty scenes along the drive

A little Maryland in Thailand

Didn't expect to find crab chips halfway across the world. I definitely prefer the kind with Old Bay!

Gas station in Thailand