Not Your Typical Day

You have asked, “where’s your blog about Bhutan? Weren’t you in Thailand? Have you posted anything about Vietnam?” I know. I know. It’s in the pipeline people. Let me give you a verbal vomit status update.

Bhutan blog is coming. I’m editing it in route to South Africa. I believe I have a 20+ hour transport agenda on December 4th and December 5th. Meaning, I have time to kill if the flight doesn’t kill me first. Expect Verbal Vomit of Bhutan posted the second week of December, while I’m in Johannesburg. I’ve scheduled a safari for 4 days. Then, I have 3 extra days in Johannesburg. Considering it is one of the more dangerous places in the world, I will be hunkered down editing and posting from the confines of a J-berg hotel room or lobby. Let’s just hope WiFi works..

After Bhutan, I traversed to Thailand – my place to take a nap. To re-energize. Try yoga. Eat healthy. And, work on amassing more freckles and age spots.

My friend Mary from London sent me an email saying, “You are the ONLY person I know who takes a holiday from a holiday?” She’s right. But, quite frankly, I was in need of some R&R after the Russian sighs, Mongolian sunshine, Chinese confusion and Bhutanese Buddhism. Thailand blogs will be short, even though I could have written a book about the place.

After tranquil, tame Thailand, I popped on over to Vietnam and Cambodia, where chaos befell and the “true” travel experiences were achieved.   So, expect many blog entries or, as I refer to them as, TallGirl Verbal Vomit to delight your day.    Off the races…

Chinese Children... So cute!

Yep… Just left China.  Landed in Bangkok.  Heading to Bhutan in 2 hours.  Goal is to spend air flight to finish editing China.  Suspect Bhutan has no access to electronic -TV, WiFi, Radio – given its named “happiest place on earth.”  It’s run by Monks.

Will be back in reality on October 23 and 24th.  Will post all China then.  Bhutan, following week.  Pictures to follow.  Get ready — there’s a lot of random observations about no-nonsense  China.  “It’s not your Mama’s communism…” It’s more like… “confused Communism.” You’ll need a cocktail if/when you read it.  Happy October!

Bhutan Map below…Leaving now…for the airport.  It’s 3:35 AM…

Irish Liver

TallGirl’s blog is ALIVE.

You’ve asked what I’ve been up to – well besides meandering through Ireland, England and Scotland – let me tell you what’s really been consuming my time.

“Everyone” says starting a blog is easy.   All you need to do is sign up at blogger.com (Google) and, magically, a template will descend from Google-land. And, presto. You have a pretty blog.  Not the case with this tallgirl.

Long story short.  Somehow…someway…. This Google blog randomly inserted pictures of random people doing random things.  Let me break it down.  When I pulled up my blog, I would either see a family of redheads or frumpy Irish men on holiday.  Bad sign.  What if frumpy Irish men turned to frumpy Irish porn.  Couldn’t solve that one so I  sacked Google and moved on to the next blogging program, wordpress.  Enter week 2 of blog hell.

“Everyone” who blogs says wordpress is the way to go. They say, you have more options. More templates. More resources. More of everything!  Here’s the deal. I just wanted a template with a pulse of color, an area for an automatic photo slide show, and a map to show where I’ve been and where I’m going.

I devoted a full day of London time to sit in front of this damn thing to figure it out. I’m not an idiot. I’m just stubborn. To kick start the fun, I actually read the Getting Started guide for wordpress.com. Five minutes in, I realized the damn thing is written for people who dream in computer code and believe socializing involves starring at a screen.

So, I googled blogging for dummies. Blogging for idiots. Blogging for newbies. Blogging for slugs. Blogging for people approaching 40…50…60. Blogging for people who actually like people and hate technology. The list goes on and on and on. Someone has an opinion. Someone has something relevant to say. But, you really don’t know who these jackasses are. It could be some big joke where they post crap just to screw with the computer commoners, like me. And, if someone has a decent tip, guess what, it is old because wordpress has “just released” the latest version 3 hours

All Colors Included

Time to take a break.

I don’t smoke so I jumped on a train to Scotland for the second largest fringe festival in the world. I’m in need of some fringing. For the first two days – I did just that. Fringe.

Day three, I sauntered into an internet cafe run by a Pakistani family. It was fate. Today is the day. The shop owner pointed up. Was he pointing to the blogging heavens? Telling me to have faith? That I can do it? No, the computers lived upstairs. Two hours down and the photo slide show was mastered. The minute PART-AY fell from my lips guess what appeared? Not one, not two but three damn slide shows. I’m no longer in control  “It’s” taken over.   I’m out of here.

Down the cobbled street. Through the parade of painted, semi-naked fringers banging on drums, over the bridge, around Sir Walter Scott monument and back to my hotel. Mumbling the entire time. Burning people looks through my H&M sunglasses. Willing them to hurl themselves off the bridge.

As I stormed the Edinburgh streets in search of victims, the more I over analyzed this dreadful situation. Blogging of this kind is enthusiastically self-serving. It’s the vehicle to track my travels, capture entertaining moments, document observations – whether or not there’s an interactive travel map, pictures, audio, video, widgets, plug ins, themes…or whatever “everyone” on the blog-a-sphere claims you need.

Jim Spencer – former youth group leader and now pastor at St. Peter the Fisherman at

New Smyrna Beach – imparted a few words before I set sail. He said, “you know what I would do if I were in your situation… I would ask God what He wants you to see, hear, learn… Because, God is going to show you some awesome things. Lead you to some amazing places. And, support you in some crazy times. Write it down. Reflect on it. Share it.”

So, I ask myself, what has God being trying to show me these past 19 days? Well, the first thing that popped in my cloudy, pissed-off head was…Screw what everyone else says. Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it honest. And, just keep communicating the best way you know how.

Well, the best I know how includes 2 pathetic photo slide shows, a clock and no travel map.I hope by day 190 to have a map, pictures of MY travels and a legible list of countries

Shoe in Wicklow, Ireland

where I have visited and intend to visit. Until then, all I can promise is text and the occasional colored picture of my shoe.

Yes, the blog is ALIVE. Dori Madison won the title award with Not Your Typical Day. www.notyourtypicalday.net.

The goal is to share a random entry about random occurrences each week. This will be difficult for I’ll be in remote places like Siberia, Mongolia and…but, I’ll try my best. Please feel free to share this link with those who may be interested.

OK. I’ve GOT to shower and air out a shirt. Have plans tonight with some gents at a Scottish pub.  PART-AY!