Today's Treasures

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About Me

 

Hi there and welcome! I'm a San Francisco photographer armed with a Nikon and a case of wanderlust. When I lost my job, I decided to embark on a journey, both literally and reflectively, to capture what people treasure most in life. Read more about my story here...

 

Up-to-the-minute updates

What We Treasure in India: My Goat  

A warm and fuzzy post to start the work week. Learn more about my stop to a small village in Rajasthan, India. Read more here...

New photos of India have been added to the photo gallery. Click here to experience what I consider to be one of the most stunning landscape in the word!

 

 

Inspirational Quotes from Leaders & Readers

  

 

 

 

 

Countdown Calendar

Entries in travel destinations (7)

Thursday
Sep272012

Bucket List: Sunrise on the Serengeti

There are somethings that just can't be described in words, and watching the sunrise on the Serengeti from a hot air balloon is one of them. I really treasure that I had the chance to partake in this once-in-a-life time experience. My only wish would have been to have my friends there to share it with me! Join me and watch the sunrise as the balloon takes off and the frolicking giraffes in the videos below.

 

 

What are some of your "bucket list" experiences? 

Tuesday
Sep042012

What We Treasure in Budapest: Riding the Waves

"They say these waters cure all sorts of diseases if you drink it," my personal tour guide Janos shares with me. He shrugs and says he prefers regular water, as we stand in line at the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, the end of our comprehensive eight-hour, multi-mile, 100 -degrees-with-hmidity tour of Budapest. 

Janos is a handsome student in his 20s who studies commerce by day, works a graveyard shift at a hotel by night, and sometimes gives personal city tours. He says the tours, which he is very good at, were his brother David's idea. David is hosting me through AirBNB and I'm staying at David's apartment. 

The woman behind the counter barks something to Janos in Hungarian. It's sold out today, but Janos insists it's something I should do while I'm in Budapest, especially the wave pool.

The first wave pool was designed and built in Budapest in 1927. Bath culture is huge in Hungary, brought over by the Turks in the 1500s. It's thrived in large part because of Hungary's estimated 1,300 underground thermal springs. Water from these springs are claimed to heal everything from aches, to low metabolism, to arthritis. But can they cure me of heat exhaustion?

The next day, swimsuit and sunblock in tow, I make my way back to Széchenyi Baths. It's a complex so large, it has it's own map. Winding through the mazes of lockers, gyms and massage rooms, I finally arrive at the main pool area where I hear sounds of splashing and laughter coming from the center of the pool. I had found the wave pool. 

The wave pool is like a donut placed in the middle of the pool with a static hot tub in the center. I dipped my body slowly into the water, it was warm and the water was soft. I tentatively entered the wave pool, but was quickly swept into it with a swoosh. The waves pushed me forward and before I knew it, I was in the middle of it.  

Everyone in the wave pool was smiling, laughing, participating. Hungarian woman with their strong beak noses, gap teeth and raspberry-colored hair were gliding along with the waves. Little old ladies in their black-one piece bathing suits, swim goggles and blue hair caps were bobbing along like rubber duckies in a bathtub. Old men in Speedos, with gold cross necklaces dangling down their hairy chests, weave in an intoxicated manner like drunks stumbling home from the bar. The faint smell of hot dogs from the cafeteria hangs in the air. Around they go, a human Merry-Go-Round, swirling, twirling, wobbling up and down. Under a fountain outside the wave pool, a chubby kid in glasses keeps watch like a hawk. Sometimes he smiles his cheshire cat grin and nods to his friends, as if giving his approval...

Approval, disapproval, who's watching, who's not. It's still ingrained in the Hungarian culture, even after the fall of communism over 20 years ago. Over beer and spritzers (wine mixed with soda water), David confided that distrust is still prevalent, even among the younger generations.

This wasn't confined to his opinion but a shared sentiment. One person I met didn't trust fellow Hungarians to drink responsibly, another didn't trust them to spend responsibly, no one trusted the government. Police roam the streets, parks and Metro. "When we had our gay pride parade," Janos told me, "they had them march down the streets behind a fence."

Another round in the wave pool I go, like a needle undulating against an old record. A group of rowdy teenage boys in boxer shorts enter the pool. Some swim forward, some try to swim backward without much luck. SWOOSH! Waves pull them under and they cackle with laughter. The few that have girlfriends wave to them sitting on the sidelines. The ones that don't try to impress others by splashing around. The sun gets hotter. It smells of wet pavement and coconut oil. In the corner of the next pool, a group of older gentlemen in black Speedos are playing chess. Each move is carefully considered and a group has formed to watch the outcome...

Bathtub seating at a local Ruin PubWhat's the next move for Hungary? Innovation, enterprise and ingenuity have blossomed since the communist days and Hungarians seem to be master magicians at turning something out of nothing. One such example are the "Ruin Pubs." Young entrepreneurs took "ruined" buildings, many every bit as glorious as those in Paris, and transformed them into social pubs. Any scrap left behind, old chairs and even bathtubs, have been reused as seating or decor. David told me not long ago the government offered subsidies for people to renovate these buildings. But now those subsidies are gone. Pigeons occupy these spaces. Jobs are scarce and many are migrating to the Netherlands or the United Kingdom to find work. In addition to his job at a call center, his own online coupon business and renting apartments on AirBNB, David is starting a recruiting company to help people find jobs in these countries...

Finding footing in the wave pool is a challenge. If you try, you will most certainly lose it. A surge of water hits a teenager carrying his young brother on his shoulders. He slips and they splash into the pool, laughing "WHAAAAA!" like the high pitched shrill of a blackbird. Sometimes you can smell the ponies from the zoo next door. Two little girls wearing bright pink arm floaties tentatively enter the pool, accompanied by their dad. He holds one of their hands as he guides them into the pool. Their tentativeness is soon replaced by animated grins as they get swept into the motion of the waves. Spinning like tops, they giggle and wave. Mom in her floppy hat eating watermelon, and grandma with her over-sized sunglasses, watch from the sidelines. They cheer, take photos, film video. Proud. 

Budapest is still in the process of renaming their streets from their Communist Era names back to their pre-World War II titles. I was told on average, 30 street names are changed each month. Hungarians are a proud people. They treasure their culture, their Goulash soup, their Palinka. Palinka is a traditional fruit brandy, usually made from plum or peaches, invented in the Middle Ages. David told me that under a recent "Hungarian Palinka Law" only distilled beverages made using special methods and technology from fruits produced in Hungary and distilled locally can be called Palinka. They still make Palinka in Romania, he told me but, "it's not real Palinka." Rivalry with Romania still exists. Some are still sore about traditional Hungarian territory that was sliced off to Romania after World War I.  A small faction even disagreed with naming the city Budapest because it sounded too much like Bucharest.

"Egészségedre," or "to your health," David said before we downed our plum Palinka. It stung my lips, burned my throat and warmed my stomach. Egészségedre? I think my health may disagree...

After 20 minutes in the wave pool, my health feels better. I'm relaxed, at ease and filled with a sense of contentment I haven't felt in a long time. With each oscillation, I see the faces of the beautiful Hungarian people surrounding me. Not beautiful because of any particular physical merit, but beautiful because they are beaming, joyful, holding hands, united and enjoying the moment. For a minute I wonder what the world would be like if we were all placed in one giant wave pool with no choice but to either go with the flow or laugh at ourselves for fighting against it? Would our problems dissipate in the thermal waters? Just maybe the Hungarians were onto something when they claimed their waters a cure-all...

Thank you to my host David and tour guide Janos for letting me into their worlds and sharing what makes Budapest special.  

I wish I would have brought my camera to the baths, but was not certain it would be allowed. You can see more of my photos from Budapest by clicking here

Tuesday
Aug282012

Budapest in Pictures


It was 100F with humidity when I was in Budapest, so I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked.

You can see more photos from my Budapest here. 

Friday
Jul132012

Brooklyn in Pictures

Monday
Jul092012

Portland's Not Weird, Just a Little Quirky

I admit, I was expecting a freak show. After all, I heard that Portland is the city that makes a concerted effort to "keep it weird." And while thirty-three percent of Portlanders believe if Oregon succeeded from the US it should be ruled by someone in a Sasquatch suit, I hardly think that qualifies for true weirdom.

Instead, Portland is more like a Miranda July movie: introverted, self-conscious and cutsey. Everything is cute from the beer koozies made from felt, to stuffed animals sold in craft stores (also made from felt), to the hand-knitted sweaters made for the supposedly shivering, felt stuffed animals. Even donut mascots have cute little faces on them and run around in bright Barbie-pink shops, even though they're supposedly "voodoo." Indie music pumped from coffee shops is so bouncy that it makes the Unicorn's "I Was Born (a Unicorn)" sound downright emo. Street art, which is plentiful, looks like colorful doodles stolen from a teenager's daydream diary. And for the record, there are more moose than birds"put on things," perhaps proof that the bird's time is done.

Yes, there's an undeniable love for nostalgia. Most Portland women look like Lisa Loeb: thick glasses, wispy hair pulled up with tiny barrettes and chunky Mary Janes, evoking a 1994 state of mind. You can also revisit your childhood years by buying candy necklaces out of school buses or eating grilled cheese sandwiches in a fire-engine red double decker. Unhappy childhood? Well, there's food carts offering to serve up their happy memories, along with a side of tater tots. Nolstalgia extends to home decor too, where vintage shops line Burnside Street, along with a museum dedicated to velvet art, proving it's not just the 90s Portander's are stuck in.

Portland is also known as the place indie rockers go to retire, from Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement fame), Modest Mouse, the Decemberists and Spoon, just to name a few. And while I was unsuccessful finding Malkmus' supposed "castle" or the Modest Mouse house, I could easily imagine Malkmus drinking an ale on the porch of one of the sprawling 2-story homes off shady Belmont, telling the band it's time to tune...

For a city that's a little different, it's quite fitting that Chris Guillebeau's "World Domination Summit" is held in Portland. Guillebeau, of "The Art of Non-Conformity" fame, extols the virtues of individuality and applying a personalized approach to happiness and success. In true non-conformist fashion (no art needed for that), I crashed the summit. While one can choose from such workshops as "Intro for World Changers," and "What Are Your Superpowers?" the underlying message, (or "manifesto" as they call it), is the same: be yourself, share it with the world and stop apologizing for it. Or in simple terms: let your freak flag fly.

Returning to the Ace Hotel from an evening of drinks at the Driftwood Room, my friend Johnny* turned to me and said, "I think I'm going the wrong way on a one-way street." Immediately, a cop with a bullhorn called out, "You're going the wrong way on a one-way street." No ticket issued, just an declaration. That's Portland. Not weird, just a little quirky....

*Some names have been changed to respect the privacy of the individual or just for giggles.  

 Been to Portland? What were your observations? More pictures of Portland here.