Friday, December 26, 2008

One Hot Winter

On December 25th we were here:


While our house probably looked something like this:


But I must admit it was a little strange to not be in a place where it was snowy or at least below 40 degrees around Christmas. Throughout this trip we have had to remind ourselves just what time of year it really is so we don't go home expecting Boston in July.

Because we already have about a billion photos of the trip, this will be more of a photo log than an actual post. I figure it will help keep it a little shorter (yes, it could have been much longer), so just pay attention to the captions, they'll tell the story.

Trip Day 1: Tokyo/Narita, Japan

After a very brief stop in Chicago, we arrived in Japan around 5ish, so we had some time before we wanted to go to bed. We wandered through the local town, Narita, down a winding street that led to a Buddhist temple complex.

Pagoda-type building in Narita temple complex.

Stone wall with carved inscriptions within Narita temple complex.

Trip Day 2: Tokyo/Narita, Japan

"Lightopia" paper lanterns in the plaza across from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

The next day we took the train into Tokyo (it was as crowded as they show on TV) to see the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately we were there on a Friday when the Palace is closed to visitors. So instead we walked all the way around the palace hoping for a glimpse. We didn't get one. This is a view of one of the entrance bridges, and no, that building is not the Palace.

View of Tokyo with intimidating Palace moat and embankment in foreground.

Wandering around the Palace complex, wishing and hoping and thinking and praying for a way in.

Apparently they even have Kents in Japan. The obligatory photo-op in downtown Tokyo.

After Tokyo turned out to be a bust, we returned to Narita and checked out the local shops. We found some pretty cool souvenirs, but you'll have to visit us to see them. I also bought my Mom a genuine Japanese Kimono for Christmas. This is the main street that leads you to the Buddhist temple we visited the night before.

Trip Days 3-5: Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok around midnight local time. Bangkok is a surprisingly large city with tons of people. It's also amazingly hot for the "cool" season. We spent the next 3 days hanging out and doing a whole lot of nothing, except visiting a local tailor to get Kent a custom-made suit. I'm sure there will be pictures of that at a later date. This is one view of Bangkok from my parent's balcony.

A good amount of time was spent at the pool in my parent's building. Kent and my brother, Colin, had a good time experimenting with the underwater setting on our camera.



Trip Day 6: Angkor Thom & Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

First, before we get caught up in the scenery, I would like to thank the Cambodian airport officials for really welcoming us to their country. I mean, really, charging us the extra $10 on top of the $40 we paid for visas just so you could plaster the visa over a page in Kent's very full passport was above and beyond the regular fanfare. Oh, and every official that looked at his passport after that and took a good 15 minutes beyond what was necessary, I mean really, you shouldn't have. You made us feel so special. Thank you for going the extra mile. Although a cavity search would have really kicked it up a notch, something to consider.

After our tour guide (Kim) and driver (VanNa) picked us up from the airport, the first stop on our Cambodian sight-seeing tour was the complex of Angkor Thom. This is a view of the South Gate entrance. It has four entrances that all look the same.

On both sides of the entrance there are rows of statues, demons on the right, gods on the left. Naturally Kent had to imitate the demons...

This is a close up of the demon, with the South Gate in the background.

Atop each entrance and tower of the temple (shown below) there are carvings of the face of the Khmer king who built this complex. I know I won't spell his name right, but it was something like Jayavarnaman VII.

This is the Bayon Temple within the Angkor Thom complex. It had a lot of bas relief on the walls, telling the story of this king.

These are the faces of the king on the towers of the temple. This particular king liked to mix a little Hinduism with Buddhism (much to his son's chagrin) which is why on each tower or gate entrance there are four faces, one facing each direction.

Nose to nose with the great Khmer ruler.

After lunch and a little rest at our hotel, we stopped by Angkor Wat. This is probably one of the better known Cambodian sites. This one is older than Angkor Thom and built by a different king.

In the middle of Angkor Wat are the higher towers of the temple. There was one central tower with 4 corner towers.

On each side of the towers there are 3 steep staircases. The center one was for the king's use, apparently he doesn't like to walk where commoners walk. His staircase was also less steep than the other two, although I don't think I'd be volunteering to hike up any of them on a daily basis. There is one staircase they call the "Lady's Stair" which is one where a foreign woman fell down the stairs and died, so her husband forced the Cambodians to put up a hand rail on one side in her memory and to prevent future accidents, although I'm not sure why they didn't just put up handrails on every staircase...

The "marketplace" outside of Angkor Wat. Outside of any tourist attraction, no matter how small or large, there were always plenty of vendors trying to get you to buy whatever they had to sell. Usually they would have the kids follow you around constantly asking you to buy something. I must give it to the Cambodians, they are persistent. Unfortunately, they usually didn't have anything we wanted to buy. This is how my mom got suckered into buying wooden flutes for my nieces and nephews when my parents were in Cambodia. NOTE: Have your children work the next garage sale, I bet you'll get rid of a lot more stuff.

This picture is mostly being posted for Kent Awesomeness Points. We were driving back to our hotel from Angkor Wat and we passed this huge field where a bunch of the locals were playing their "end of the work day" soccer game. We didn't really stay to watch most of the game, but the sunset is nice. Most of the players were in bare feet, which I say earned them extra points because that can be painful.

Trip Day 7: Preah Khan and Ta Prohm, Cambodia

Our first stop the next day was a temple called Preah Khan, which means "Sacred Sword." This was the temple where the Khmer king would house is sword and would come to get it before battle. Talk about trying to get God(s) to pick a side. This temple was more off on it's own, in the depths of the jungle and much more overgrown than Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom. It gave it a cool, kind of creepy, feeling.

Another view of Preah Khan. This shows more of the jungle growing into, on, and around the structure. Pictures can't really capture the atmosphere, but if you ever find yourself in Cambodia, I strongly recommend a visit to Preah Khan. And yes, even more than Angkor Wat.

This is the structure at Preah Khan that actually housed the king's sword. And I was starting to think our house was a pretty good size, only to be beat out by a sword...In the foreground is the head of the Nagara(sp?). This is a multi-headed serpent that is commonly found running along the entrances to most temples representing the king. And I always thought serpents were the bad guys...

This is a view of the inside of Preah Khan. This gives you a good idea of just how the jungle decided to move in. It's amazing how the trees end up growing in and around the building without knocking it down. There were quite a few spots where they had to cut down some of the trees because they were becoming a safety hazard to the visitors, but I think that just kills the mood.

Our next site that day was Ta Prohm, better known as the Tree Temple. Apparently this site was made famous for it's role in the Tomb Raider movie. Once you walk around a little it makes sense to use a site like this. Like Preah Khan it was so overgrown and mysterious. This was probably our favorite site on our trip to Cambodia. You just walk around and you can't really believe it all.

Please, please, please take a close look at Kent's t-shirt and comment on it (good or bad). This was his first Thailand purchase and he is very proud of it. This picture also helps give an idea of these trees which are called Spung trees, and along with Teak trees are one of the more common trees you will find in this area. They supposedly have a very soft inside, so aren't very useful for much (except growing over temples) where teak and mahogany wood is widely used.

This is a view of Ta Prohm looking from the "courtyard" type area of the temple. I'm sure there were a lot more covered galleries and corridors when it was originally built, but now it has a large open space in the center. In this area there is a small room they call the "Echo Room" which is used to bring good luck. Our tour guide told us this is where people come before school exams or business presentations to get good luck. You stand along the inside walls of what basically looks like a stone shed. If you talk, there is no echo, bang on the walls, no echo. But if you stand there and thump your chest it echoes throughout your body and the entire space. It's really hard to describe and unfortunately you can't replicate it anywhere else. Just one more reason the Tree Temple is oh SO cool.
This is the back view of Ta Prohm, showing a little bit more of it's general structure and just how enclosed by the jungle it is. Again, pictures don't do it justice...

As we exited Ta Prohm we had to cross this wooden bridge over this scuzzy looking pond which only enhanced the overall atmosphere. You can really see why they would want to film on location for Tomb Raider. Hollywood can't even make this stuff up, although for some reason it looks a little brighter and less creepy than it does when y0u are standing there.

Trip Day 8: Banteay Srei, Cambodia

On Christmas Day we decided to take the morning off from sight-seeing and just enjoy the holiday. The night before our hotel hosted a Christmas Dinner and for a nation that doesn't celebrate Christmas or really understand what it's for, they were pretty excited. In fact, I could easily say the staff were more excited than any of their Christian guests. Anyway, we decided to visit a small temple about an hour outside of Siem Reap called Banteay Srei, or Citadel of the Women.

This site was definitely one of the smallest and because of the drive we weren't sure if we even wanted to go (Cambodian roads are not well-paved) but in the end I'm glad we did. A lot of the temples have decorative carvings on the walls but the ones at Banteay Srei are particularly impressive. They are really small and intricate which is part of the reason for it's name, Citadel of Women. It is believed that a woman must have helped build this temple because the carvings are too intricate to have been done by a male hand.

On our way back from Banteay Srei, we stopped by a small roadside temple that honestly, I can't even remember the name of. I think it's safe to say at this point we were pretty templed-out. But this site allowed you to climb all the way to the top tower, which gave you a nice view of the countryside.

Trip Day 9: Floating Village, Cambodia

On our final day in Cambodia we decided we wanted to see a bit more of Cambodia and less of temples. So before our flight we visited the floating village which is exactly what it sounds like. I was expecting huts on stilts, but for the most part this entire community lives on some form of a boat. They even have basketball courts/gyms with each school, which is pictured here.

Obviously to visit the floating village you must travel by boat. We had this huge boat completely to ourselves. This is the one and only picture we have of our faithful tour guide, Kim. Mostly because on our boat ride back from the village the camera died. Look how much fun we're having riding on the roof.

This is one of the homes. There is a large lake (so large we couldn't see any of its banks) which the village moves to during the dry season (right about now). During the rainy season they are along the river that leads to the lake. It was really impressive to see how they managed to create their homes on water, including gardens like this one has. Some people had two boats tied together to create their house. They all get points for creativity.

Once we reached the "main strip" of the village we stopped off at one of their floating community centers where they had a souvenir shop, a restaurant, a small fish museum, and a crocodile farm. Apparently they raise these crocodiles to a certain age (or maybe size) and then ship them off to Singapore where the skins are used for ladies purses and shoes.

Across from the crocodile farm there was a Vietnamese Community Center where they all congregate on their little boats to get together and chat. Kim told us that you could tell who was Vietnamese because they were the ones wearing the cone-shaped hats.

And to conclude our trip to Cambodia, here is Kent's National Geographic entry of the week. This was taken on our ride back to shore from the floating village.

I really did try to get this post done sooner, but unfortunately a week on the beach prevented it from happening. Yeah, really sorry about that...But stay tuned and maybe within the next two months I'll post about the rest of our trip...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Top 5 Pet Peeves

Heidi has challenged me to write a post about my top 5 pet peeves. Everybody else got questions unique to their situation, so I guess it's pretty well known that I am a whiner, and I am very easily annoyed. But if people wouldn't be so annoying, then everybody would be happier.

I've actually been thinking of what my pet peeves are for quite some time. I could probably put them in categories. But I don't want to make this too elaborate. All the things on this list I'm probably guilty of at one time or another, however, I do my best to not subject anyone to them. The caveat to this is when you're doing any of these for the sole purpose to annoy somebody, then it's okay and quite humorous.

5. The sound of eating

Everybody makes noise when they eat. I know I do. I just don't like being near (as in, within a couple of feet) somebody who is eating when I'm NOT eating. I just sit there and listen to them eating, checking up on their progress and impatiently waiting for them to FINALLY finish that bowl of ice cream they've been smacking on for the last 15 minutes, although it seemed like 4 hours.

It especially bugs me when I'm watching a tv show/movie and there's a scene where somebody is talking and eating. Is this necessary? Do we really have to hear the amplified sound of them smacking and chomping while they save the world/get the girl? I say they eliminate meal scenes, and if they must have a meal scene, the speaker does us all a favor and finishes his mouthful before speaking.

4. Whistlers/hummers

The actual act of whistling and humming isn't so bad. Okay, it is. Once I was in a public bathroom minding my own business when some whistler came in tooting his horn and just being overly cheerful and loud. He did his business, whistling the whole time. It was very strange, and very annoying. I just want to be in peace. Don't force everybody to be a part of the song in your head.

It especially bothers me when they choose annoying tunes you know like "3 blind mice" or "Camptown ladies" or "Jingle bells". Then you have that dumb song in your head for the rest of the day! I always tried not being outside at BYU on the hour, just to avoid hearing the Come Come Ye Saints bells and have that song stuck in my head all day.

With that said-

Five. Five dollar. Five dollar footloooooooong...

3. Loud breathers

There is nothing worse than sitting next to someone in Sunday School that is whistling through their nose so loudly that I can't think of anything except their next breath. About 10 minutes of this and I turn into Flanders: "BREATHE OUT OF YOUR DANGNABBED MOUTH!"

I had a comp who whistled all the time out of his nose. When I told him about it, he denied having that problem. We even sat there in silence, me hearing his whistling nose, him claiming that he couldn't hear it. So maybe the loud breathers can't hear themselves breathe. It's still annoying.

2. Dogs

I am a notorious dog-hater. I will gladly tell people that I hate dogs, I hate THEIR dog, I hate THEM for having a dog, and I hate their mother for having a child that has a dog. Okay, maybe not that much hate. I just hate the messes and stink and noise that comes with dogs. So my pet-peeve is more like "dog-related annoyances". I would say most of the general population likes dogs and feels the need to have one, so when I mention I don't like dogs, they are usually offended and can't possibly imagine why anyone, anywhere, would hate dogs. But I don't apologize. I can give a long list of why dogs are awful that even the most fanatical dog lover can't deny:
  • They poop everywhere
  • They shed everywhere
  • They make everything stink like dog
  • They bark at inopportune times
  • They pee everywhere
  • They are NOT like having kids. Maybe like having a kid who never contributes to society, never gets potty trained, never helps around the house, never grows up, etc.
  • They require food that costs money
  • You have to get them shots and take them to the vet
  • You can't have conversations with them
  • You can teach them to do like 3 things max
  • They will never wash your dishes
  • They will never make you a meal
  • They will chew up your prized hat when you are getting a haircut (I LOVED that hat)
Why dogs are good:
  • They are man's best friend, if you like having friends who don't talk, poop in your lawn, and never chip in for their food, which you don't
  • They can pull your sled if you have enough of them, which you don't
  • They can move cattle if you have cattle that need to be moved, which you don't
  • They can keep away criminals. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding!
1. Chewed gum

There are few things more disgusting than chewed gum. It makes me nauseous just writing about it. I would rather touch human waste than a chewed piece of gum. If you're a gum chewer, please do us all a favor and dispose of it properly. Put it in a piece of paper before you throw it way. Make sure it gets in the trash. It doesn't belong on the sidewalk, under a desk/table/chair, almost in the trash, in the urinal (so GROSS!), on your cup during a meal (who does this?), or behind your ear. NASTY!

My high school friends knew I hated this and used it against me constantly. They teased me and I got all squeamish, and we had a good laugh, and we had fun. But what's NOT funny is chewed gum not in the garbage. Please, do your part.

I saw in the news some town (I think it was Santa Fe, NM) banned chewing gum. I wouldn't mind if that was a law. There are other ways to keep your breathe fresh: brush your treath, pop an altoid, do a breath strip, etc.

Now that you've all read my pet peeves, you must be thinking, "Wow, this guy needs to reLAX!" Don't judge me. Don't pretend like you don't have your own pet peeves. Maybe one of your pet peeves is people with pet peeves.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Second Annual BCS Bashing

I know you've all been watching this college football season unfold thinking, "Why hasn't Kent written anything derogatory about the BCS?" Well, wonder no longer. I only expect Kurt to read this beast of a post, so the rest of you can go to all the other blogs and look at pictures of cute babies.

Has anything been so hated, yet continued to function? I feel like I'm living in communist Russia, except the USSR is the NCAA, the KGB is the BCS conference commissioners, and the local communist leaders are the university presidents. Any self-respecting fan of college football wants a playoff, but every year we get the same mumbo-jumbo, controversy brewing after every week on who should play in the Championship game.

One ESPN writer said the BCS wasn't wrong, just different. Like home-schooling your kids is different. I will admit that the BCS is better than the old process. But it's definitely wrong compared to a possible playoff. I liken anybody that supports the BCS (mostly old, dumb announcers) to the same people who think that TV should still be analog, football should be played with leather helmets, bunting is the most effective way to move runners over, and that candles are better than light bulbs. It's just an old way of thinking. Get with the times! We've found ways to improve our lives, so shape up or ship out!

I hated how everybody just assumed that the winner of the SEC championship would go to the championship. Has anybody checked the non-conference schedules of the SEC? We always just assume they're the best, and for all we know, they could be. But I did some research and figured out what the record of each conference was versus other BCS conferences:
Conf W-L PF-PA
ACC 12-8 486-526
Big East 7-6 334-384
Big 10 4-5 248-226
Big 12 7-8 495-415
SEC 6-9 364-349
PAC-10 5-5 265-292

The ACC had the best record, but was negative in the point differential. The Big 12 had the best point differential, but was under .500. Just for fun, the MWC vs. BCS:

MWC 9-4 336-321

What's most telling about this is the amount of BCS games these conferences had. If you divide the BCS games by the number of estimated non-conference games each conference had, you can see how weak each conference is making their schedules:

42% ACC
33% Big East
20% Big 10
31% Big 12
31% SEC
33% PAC-10

You see here that the ACC is the most aggressive at scheduling bigger names. The Big 10, (surprise, surprise) schedules a bunch of poofters. And, just for fun:

36% MWC

I have 2 points to prove with these stats:

1. There is NO WAY of knowing which conference is "better". The ACC had no dominating teams this year, yet they had the best non-conf record. The SEC and Big 12 had the most dominant teams, but their record was suspect. I personally believe the Big 12 has the best teams this year, but that's just a guess. The SEC is always rated very highly, but this year I don't believe it was justified. Preseason favorites like Georgia, Auburn, and LSU all ended up doing badly. So why not USC and Penn St for the championship instead of Florida and OU? The BCS is essentially a hype machine. Whoever generates the most buzz will get the votes, as long as you win your games at the right time.

2. There is no motivation to schedule tough match-ups in non-conference play. Why play USC when you can play Troy and not get dinged for it? There were only a couple of interesting non-conference games this year: USC vs Ohio St, and...I can't think of another one.

Because there is no playoff, I must have a pretend playoff, which is somehow still better than watching the last 5 minutes of the Poinsetta Bowl. I've taken the 11 conference winners and added 5 at-large bids using the top 5 non-champions in the BCS. I've seeded them according to the BCS poll as well, and had play begin 2 weeks after the regular season:

December 20th

1. Oklahoma
16. Buffalo

8. Penn St
9. Boise St

4. Alabama
13. Va Tech

5. USC
11. TCU

3. Texas
14. Tulsa

6. Utah
12. Cincinnati

7. Texas Tech
10. Ohio St

2. Florida
15. Troy

I moved TCU and Cincy since you wouldn't want someone from the same conference playing in the first round anyway. That'd be boring. But look at the match-ups! Obviously you have the Cindarella games against crappy teams (Troy, Buffalo) which will probably be blow-outs, but you never know. But the other games make me salivate: Texas Tech vs Ohio St! Penn St vs Boise!

So here are the scores:

1. Oklahoma 56
16. Buffalo 3

8. Penn St 19
9. Boise St 15

4. Alabama 31
13. Va Tech 3

5. USC 14
11. TCU 12

3. Texas 64
14. Tulsa 35

6. Utah 38
12. Cincinnati 10

7. Texas Tech 52
10. Ohio St 28

2. Florida 41
15. Troy 27

So I didn't pick any upsets for round 1. But we still had a few close games, and the matchups for round 2 are staggering! OU vs Penn St, USC vs Bama, Texas vs Utah, Tech vs Florida. Let's check the scoreboard:

December 27th

Rose Bowl
1. OU 55
8. Penn St 14

Orange Bowl
4. USC 28
5. Bama 27

Fiesta Bowl
3. Texas 45
6. Utah 17

Sugar Bowl
2. Florida 40
7. Tech 55

Watching Florida go down would be AWESOME! So now we have the Semifinal games, which need no introduction:

Jan 3rd

1. OU 17
4. USC 20

USC's D shuts down the spread and their handsome QB engineers a 45 second drive to kick a field goal as time runs out.

3. Texas 49
7. Tech 21

With no home-field advantage this time, Tech is no match for Texas. That leaves us with the pretend champeenship of the teams with one loss who got left out of this year's ACTUAL championship, also a rematch of Matt Leinart vs Vince Young:

Jan 10th

4. USC 22
3. Texas 21

Now just look at all those games. 15 football games that even the most casual football fan would be interested in! Tell me, how many bowl games will you watch this year? Maybe 2, 3, maybe as many as 5 to 10. I'd watch all the major MWC bowls (3) and the championship, maybe a couple others. As many as 8 if I was in town. And I'm a pretty big football fan. Your casual fan? Maybe 1 or 2. Max. So if the money-grubbers that don't want a change think that they'll lose money by switching to the playoff, I insist they're wrong. TV revenues would double, I promise.

So what's stopping us? Why can't the NCAA just say "Okay, screw it, it's time for a change!" Why can't they just take charge and force everybody to comply? If some universities don't like it, what can they do? Play club football?

This November, the people of America voted for change. But, in my eyes, the only change that really matters is the change to playoffs. Tell your local politician it's time to shake things up. Yes we can! (I didn't vote for Obama, but if he gets the NCAA to have a playoff, then I will consider his presidency successful.)

Monday, December 1, 2008

Tons of pics, part 2

I know you all don't care (only 2 comments last post!), but I said I would put up more, and I am a man of my word:

This is on the outskirts of the village that I ended my week-long trek in. We arrived in the early afternoon, right after school ended. I love this picture because it illustrates Nepal so well: the terraced farms, the mountains, the children.
Timpanogos!
On the Teton trek, looking south towards the Grand Teton, Lake Solitude on the right. About 10,000 feet up.
Hilton Head
Fanueil Hall on First Night, Boston, Dec. 31, 2007
Boylston Street on First Night, looking from the Common
Looking south onto the Financial District from the North End, Boston. The clock tower on the left, the Old Customs House, is where my Great-grandpa Hendrik Winkel arrived in America. Or was it my dad's side? Mom, correct me here.
Newport Beach

That famous Cypress tree on the Big Sur, California.
Some beach north of San Fran
Some bridge that crosses the St. Larry river, overlooking Montreal
Same bridge, different picture
Lake Solitude, Grand Teton National Park
Monument valley
Vermont foliage, outside Manchester, Vermont, October 2008
Delicate arch
Deer Creek and Timp
Timp from the Sundance chair. You can tell I miss the mountains
Wyoming cemetary, across the street from our apartment in Melrose, MA
Sailboats on the Chaz River, Back Bay in the background.
Stowe, VT, foliage trip 2007
Some old shack we passed on the trek, near the end, lower elevation (about 8000 ft)