One of the local townships on Bali maintains a monkey forest, which is quite a well-run area containing a massive number of well-fed monkeys - and well-fed tourists. Here is a photo of one of the former:
Shaving coconuts
We stopped off in a local market in Denpasar to see where everyone actually shops, and found this extremely popular vendor who made lunches - including a topping of coconut shavings. Here, she is grinding down a piece of coconut against a grater.
Cute Bali kids
One day, our guide on Bali took us to his sister’s house, where these two young ladies were kind of interested in getting their picture taken - while still text messaging, of course.
Rice harvesting time
Here we are at a UNESCO world heritage site where they are taking in the rice crop. The farmers show up on motor bikes, stop periodically to check their cell phones, and otherwise work incredibly hard in the fields. In the second photo, a local rice merchant has set up a portable scale in the field to weigh rice.
Dispensing gas in small parcels
There are a few normal gas stations on Bali, but also many thousands more portable ones. In the first of the following two photos, we have a portable unit that dispenses very small amounts, mostly to motorbikes, followed in the second photo by a more informal approach, where they fill up old liquor bottles with gas and sell the gas in units of 3/4 of a liter.
Fighting cocks by the roadside
Cock fighting is a very big deal in Bali, so the owners of fighting roosters keep them in wicker baskets by the side of the road - not sure if that is to show them off, but you will see them all over the island.
Singaporean cloud forest
The Singapore government has built a couple of air conditioned (!) conservatories, of which the following cloud forest bio-dome is the most dramatic. It’s all concrete underneath, but you’d never know it. There’s a footpath that takes you past a waterfall and up to the top. The views out the windows are pretty incredible, since the supertrees are next door.
Supertree light show
Singapore has a twice-a-night light show for its supertrees, which are metal structures that look like trees, but which are actually used to generate solar power, collect rainwater, and vent heat from adjacent conservatories. As you can see in the photo below, there is also an aerial skyway that links the supertrees. Touristy, but also quite awesome.
Perhaps it's a bit humid
Singapore is a great city, but it’s also incredibly hot and sticky, as the following photo of air conditioning units barnacled onto the side of a building can attest.
No durians allowed
Durian fruit does not smell very good (at all), so they are banned from the Singapore subway system, as noted in the following warning sign on one of their trains.
Night lights in Singapore
We just completed a massive trip that routed through Singapore, then Bali, then the Wakatobi dive resort in the Bandu Sea, and then a week on the Pelagian liveaboard dive boat. The return was 44 hours, including 2.5 hours just to get our luggage in Denver at the end of the trip. The following photo is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore, from the helix footbridge that leads to it. Amazing city! Incredibly well planned, with a massive subway system and immaculate streets. The only problem is the weather - hot and humid.
The New Orleans Experience
We just attended the wedding of a friend’s son in the New Orleans cathedral. Great party town, though the calorie count was questionable. Here we are in our finery, and, yes, those are Cafe du Monde beignets, drenched in powdered sugar.
...and more snow
This was the scene on May 22 after yet another snowstorm. This was only about 3”, but still - May 22?! I don’t recall ever getting snow this late in the spring. And, the trail running was fairly mucky. My shoes were caked in mud.
Snow #@! again?
There is about two feet of snow above 10,000 feet elevation, as the following photo shows. I managed to (sort of) trail run up to the wilderness boundary for the Mt. Evans Wilderness, mostly hopping around the piles of snow and being generally unhappy. Will this snow ever melt out?!
The giant sprinting toothbrush
It is not every day that you see a giant sprinting toothbrush, in this case being beaten by a giant sprinting tooth! In the following picture, that was the scene at the Rockies game last night. A nice benefit of our seats was being able to look over the cameraman’s shoulder at home plate. Oh, and the Rockies lost to the Padres, 3-2.
Not so dry trails
An alternative title would be “ah, springtime in the Rockies”. Here we are on May 10 with 3” of fresh snow. The following shots were taken from the upper portions of Falcon Park. And in the second photo, yes, that is the trail in the lower right corner (ran it anyways).
Finally, dry trails
This is the view of a rock spire, just to one side of the Chimney Rock Trail in the back corner of Staunton State Park. Just picked off my 36th consecutive month of doing trail run half-marathons. And finally - no snow on the trails! I was a foot deep in snow on this trail just three weeks ago.
A soggy day in Maine
Just drove over this beautiful bridge while going down the coast of Maine with my dad. The nearer tower even has a glass-walled observation deck on it, though you can’t see it very well in the fog.
Choked with snow at 10,000'
The following photo shows conditions on the Cub Creek Trail in Evergreen at 10,000 feet elevation this morning. The snow is perhaps 18” deep and not really great for trail running, so I turned around after going about 3-1/2 miles up the trail. Definitely deeper snow than usual this year.
So much for Spring
Yep, the following picture is of solid ice about two miles up the Mason Creek Trail at Staunton State Park. I especially like the image of the slipping hiker on the warning sign! This goes for quite a ways, and will probably not melt out for a few more weeks, since this area doesn’t see much sun until late Spring.
