Hey Parents, Teach Your Kids Korean with My New Book

I'm really excited to report that my latest book project is back from the printers. Ten author copies are stacked on my living room chair, waiting to be shown off and gifted.

My First Book of Korean Words is a language book for young children. It introduces 26 Korean words, paired with the letters of the English alphabet--common words like dal (moon) and nolda (to play); terms specific to Korea and Korean culture, such as hanbok (traditional attire) and ondol (Korean heating system); words like echwi (achoo!) and yaong (meow) that show how foreign ears often interpret sounds in different ways; and English loan words like roket (rocket) and sillopon (xylophone).

The crew responsible for content creation is the same that worked on Korean for Beginners, with Kyubyong Park and myself responsible for the words. One happy difference with this project is that it puts the artistic talent of my wife (dba Aya Padron) center stage. Her illustrations make the book.

My First Book of Korean Words is published by our good friends at Tuttle, and is available for pre-order at Amazon now ($10.36; official release is still a couple months away). Check it out, and if you buy a copy, we'd love to get your feedback via a review at Amazon.

Happy reading,

- Hal

Baining fire dance, Papua New Guinea

Last week, I returned from a trip hosted by the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority. It was a 15-flight trip -- necessary if you're visiting multiple areas of the country, given the scarcity of roads and the abundance of islands.

A highlight for me was attending a Baining fire dance. One of PNG's 800+ distinct tribes, the Baining live in the mountains of the same name, just south of Rabaul on the island of New Britain. It was an hour drive from our accommodations at Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort, the last 10 minutes along a severely rutted, 4WD dirt road, to the village of Kainagunan.

This village is one of only a few that perform the dance on request for tourists. For large enough groups, they'll even travel to your hotel in Kokopo and do it there, though I can't see the appeal of that. Rolling up to the village square with the fire just getting started, watching the dancers with 100+ people from in and around the village, using the pit latrine -- these were all integral to the experience.

The following shots were taken with a Canon PowerShot A630 point-and-shoot, stabilized on a little wooden table or whatever other flat surface happened to be around. The audio was recorded using a Zoom H2.

Fire is needed for a fire dance. Dozens of stick bundles had been set aside as fuel. They burned fast and were added continuously.

These are a few of the dancers. As the dance is a kind of secret male initiation ceremony, they are all young men from the village, and the animal identities of their huge papier-mache masks are not shared. Apparently, the dancers spend up to a month in the jungle beforehand, cleansing themselves and ingesting/smoking fun substances in preparation.

And then they dance around, through, and directly on top of the fire. We saw a couple guys spend as long as 15 seconds in the center of the flames. Their feet were tightly and thickly wrapped with what looked like green palm fronds that would be resistant to heat and combustion...can't say the same for their bare thighs.

Other elements of the dance included carrying "naughty" children -- screaming -- around the fire, and running through the flames and kicking showers of embers into the crowd.

2011 Trips in Pics

The sky is a soft drape of powder blue and white smoke cloud. Melt drips from the eaves above the window and dissolves a dull furrow in the two inches covering the lawn. Rifle reports reverberate from somewhere beyond treeline.

It's December 27th in rural Maine.

***

Like last year, I'm stealing a colleague's idea for my "wrapup" post. That colleague would be Eva Holland, former Matador editor and current senior ed at World Hum, who recently posted My Year in Travel: 7 Photos. Yes, I've even copied her on # of shots.

And like my last--I dunno--lots of posts, this one is photo based. Not a lot of creativity in the core reserve these days, and writing something of equal or greater value to these images would tap beyond what I've got.

So, in no particular order, here are most of the places I went and some of what I did there over the past year. I feel like it was a good one.

January, Colorado: On what's become sort of a family tradition, we were driving up to Monarch Mountain for some early-year skiing and happened to pass a full-on castle on the side of Highway 69, northwest of Walsenburg. This is Bishop's Castle, a 40+ year obsession of one eccentric dude. It's still under construction--Jim Bishop was milling a rather large beam during our visit. Admission is free, donation is suggested, and the castle is spectacular. Check google images for more.

September, Jordan: Thanks again to the Jordan Tourism Board, who hosted me on a freaking amazing 10-day trip through the country. This shot is of two tourists and their guide on a camel ride through Wadi Rum.

June, South Dakota: On a part anniversary, part "tour the four states I haven't been to" roadtrip, Carey and I drove through western SD's Black Hills and Badlands (the latter pictured above). We did not mtn bike--this dude was just standing there surveying.

August, Canada: A whirlwind "visit friends" roadtrip took us to Niagara Falls, Canada, where we got this view of the Canadian side of the falls.

July, Colorado: Another press trip had me in Winter Park for Crankworx Colorado. Many thanks to the Winter Park-Fraser Valley CoC and Winter Park Resort for a great time.

August, NYC: After Niagara, we continued to the city to stay with friends renting a place on the Upper West Side. This shot was taken from the High Line looking east down 23rd St.

November, Florida: At the end of October we picked up a new travel companion--Halah, our two-year-old blue heeler. She handled a week in the car like a champ during another sort of tradition--our pre-holiday roadtrip up to Maine. I think this pic was taken at a campground in Gulf Islands National Seashore, the rapidly eroding barrier island off Pensacola.

Jordan: Parting Shots

Yeah, so, I was in Jordan.

I haven't written too much about the trip here because I figured my photos would do the job of conveying what an awesome time it was. Plus, I just published a feature article at Matador Trips called 7 things I didn't expect to find in Jordan. Check it out, and look for more next month.

My trip was organized and largely paid for by the good folks at the Jordan Tourism Board. Many thanks go out to them for the opportunity to get to a know a country that's pretty misunderstood by a lot of people. I know it surprised me.

This post is the last I'll publish here about Jordan. In parting, I'll share three more pics that demonstrate three very different experiences of the country:

 The ruins of Qasr al Abd, a fortress built ~200 BC in the Iraq Al-Amir area just outside Amman. Apparently, Hyrcanus of Jerusalem got a little too cozy with the Ptolemy brass in Alexandria, and his noble Ammonite brothers decided to dispatch him. He built this fortress to fend them off, but didn't have time to finish it. They got him.

Sunset from Wadi Feynan. Behind me, the road leads to Feynan Ecolodge, my favorite of the many fine accommodations we enjoyed on the trip. Read more about it in 7 things I didn't expect to find in Jordan.

Dusk falls over the Dead Sea, as viewed from the infinity pool at the Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea. Directly after taking this picture, Carey and I sat down on some cushions and smoked watermelon-mint shisha. Luxury.

Wadi Rum: 7 Images

 

View from the visitor center, noontime and toasty. Just to the left of this frame is TE Lawrence's "7 Pillars of Wisdom" rock formation.

 

Most tours of Wadi Rum are run in 4x. Cool kids get to ride in the bed.

Bedouin camps within Wadi Rum can arrange camel rides.

The sun sets quickly and dramatically in this desert.

Our hosts at Captain's private camp.

The next day's first light hits the high rock.

Early sun shadows.

Petra: 7 More Images

Even the walk into Petra is gorgeous. You pass through the Siq, or Gorge, which is quite narrow at spots but opens up in others.

This tourist stepped in front of my camera while I was on the ground, turning what would have been just another low-angle shot of the Treasury into something unique.

Similarly, this random guy in a white thawb gives the Great Tomb

some much-needed scale.

Looking back past one of the many groups of riding camels towards the Great Tomb.

Standing before the Monastery, at the top of "900 steps" carved into the sandstone.

Carey and Smena 8M and tombs.

The Monastery. The city on the hill in the background is where the Bedouins, forced out of their Petra caves when the site achieved UNESCO status in 1985, relocated to.