Kota Kinablau, Sabah

Photo: Me at Mount Kinabalu, Sabah
Additional photos of my Sabah visit can be found at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you unexpectedly get all the things you were wishing for? Well that happened to me here in Malaysia last week.

As I write this I am at the Universiti of Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. I am here in my capacity as an External Examiner for the tourism degree program. An External Examiner is a concept from the British system of higher education and is technically someone who is brought to the university each year to review the final examination papers to ensure rigor. These days, however, the position involves consultation on a wide range of curricular matters....

For the full blog entry go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/kota-kinablau-sabah.html

For all the photos from this trip, go to my Flickr site and search on "Sabah"
http://flickr.com/photos/alew

G4T #49: Environmental & Social Change in Nepal - Part 3 - from Nepal

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's podcast is a report on my fieldwork experience in Nepal. More details are provided in the blogs below, but this audio post may be accessible for some. The podcast covers the following three topics:

Part 1 - I discuss the administration of our photograph survey in Nepal and some of he challenges and adjustments made in doing that

Part 2 - I talk about trekking in the Khumbu (Mt. Everest) region of Nepal, where about half of the interviews took place

Part 3 - There is a short soundseeing clip from the Durba (Palace) Square of Patan, the former city-state on the south bank of the river, across from Kathmandu

I found a fast internet connection at the Kathmandu Airport for US$5/hour -- so this is going up as I leave the country.

FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Set of photos

Enjoy ....
Alan

Photo: Part of Patan's Durbar Square (a UNESCO World Heritage Site, by the way...)

Additional photos of Nepal can be found at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew

Nepal Research Project - Back to Kathmandu

(this is a blog entry, not a podcast)

11 January 2007

10:25am

We, my porter and I, left Jorsalle at 7:30am and have been walking pretty much non-stop until now. We stopped for some tea at Tarakoshi (sp?), on a bluff high above the river. I think we dip down and then start uphill toward Lukla.

... For the rest of this blog entry, click here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-back-to.html

Photo: On the recylcing run from Lukla to Kathmandu (see full blog entry for more about this).
FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew -- see the Nepal Set of photos

Nepal Tourism Research - Namche Bazaar and Beyond

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

7 January 2007

6:30pm

I had yak steak for dinner tonight. It was lean and a bit on the tough and stringy side, but not gamey. We are staying at the Panorama Lodge in Namche Bazaar and I was hoping to have a room with electricity to recharge my camera and computer batteries. Unfortunately, the deluxe rooms that have that are currently unavailable for some reason. I do have a light bulb, but no outlet. So instead, I am charging everything in the restaurant, where there is one plug. My camcorder battery is fully charged now, and my computer is about half charged. My one dead camera battery is currently plugged into the outlet charging.

... For the full text of this blog entry go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-namche-bazaar.html

Photo: the Mong La Pass, at about 13,117 feet -- the highest point on our trek.
FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Set of photos

Nepal Research Project - Into the Khumbu

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

5 January 2007

I am sitting on the roof of the domestic terminal of the Kathmandu Airport. Our flight was scheduled for 6am departure -- it is now almost noon. Initially the delay was due to fog in Kathmandu -- something is occurs almost daily. In fact, we did not even leave our hotel until about 9:30 because we knew all the flights had been delayed.

For the full text of the blog entry go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-into-khumbu.html

Photo: Yaks crossing a wood and wire bridge -- notice,too, the firewood stacked under the rock.

FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Sets of photos

Nepal Research Project - Refining the Methodology

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

3 January 2007

We did three interviews yesterday. It was the first time that we were able to test our methodology to see if it worked. (The preliminary methodology is discussed in detail in a recent Geography for Travelers podcast, though I will also get into those details again here.) The night before I was telling Kevin that there were two concerns that I had about the methodology. The first was that because the two techniques were based on standard methods used by other researchers in the past, it was not really focused on environmental and social change, and as such the results we get may be unrelated to our research problem. The photographs we collected were historical in nature (both old and new), but that alone might not be enough to get people to naturally talk about changes over time. The only way we can know if this is the case is to test the methodology.

For the full text of the blog entry go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-refining.html

Photo: Lobby of the Hotel Tibet in Kathmandu

FYI - You can see all the photos from my trip to Nepal at: http://flickr.com/photos/alew
-- see the Nepal Set of photos

Nepal Research Project - At the Bangkok Airport

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

1 January 07

I am sitting at gate C5 at the Bangkok international airport, listening to the Slashdot Review podcast on a small RCA Lyra mp3 player, while recording some of the sounds of the waiting room on my iRiver. The sounds include different languages and a video screen showing a black and white documentary of the early life of the King of Thailand (the 60th year of his reign is being celebrated in 2007). The video’s narration is in Thai, though I think only a minority of the passengers here are actually Thai.

For the Full Text of this blog entry, go here:
http://seasiatourism.blogspot.com/2007/01/nepal-research-project-at-bangkok.html